Editorials
13 Horror Movies That Need the Scream Factory Treatment!
If you didn’t snatch up the Deluxe Edition of John Carpenter’s The Thing, which is being released by Shout! Factory subsidiary Scream Factory in September, you really missed out! You can still pre-order the Collector’s Edition though, so never fear! Scream Factory gives loving Blu-Ray released to horror films of all types (both mainstream and cult) and usually loads them with special features. While their cause is a noble one, there are still a bunch of horror films we would love to see get the Scream Factory treatment (including quite a few that haven’t even seen a Blu-Ray release yet). Here are 13 of those films!
Foreign Horror
Martyrs
Pascal Laugier’s controversial film Martyrs hasn’t even seen a Blu-Ray release in America yet. You can buy the Region B/2 Blu-Ray on Amazon, but if you live in North America it won’t play unless you have a Region Free Blu-Ray player. And even then, the special features amount to a making of documentary and interviews with Laugier and the special effects artist. This fantastic film deserves a better Blu-Ray treatment and certainly deserves an American release.
Inside
Arguably the best film to come out of the New French Extremity movement, it’s perplexing that Inside has yet to see a Blu-Ray release in the states yet. Honestly, it would be great to get a box set of all of the films from the movement, but obtaining all of the rights might prove to be a bit of a chore. Still, the lack of a proper Blu-Ray release for the film that is essentially every pregnant woman’s worst nightmare is puzzling. Let’s get it done Scream Factory!
[REC] Franchise
Let’s just pretend [REC] 4: Apocalypse never happened, alright? I mean, they don’t have to put it in a [REC] box set. Oh fine, they can leave it in. As long as [REC] and [REC] 2 get a release I’ll be happy. They are two of the best found footage films ever created (and definitely two of the best zombie films ever made) and deserve some Blu-Ray love.
80s Horror
Critters
Does anyone else own that DVD with all four Critters films on one disc? It’s awesome, right? Seriously though, why aren’t these films on Blu-Ray yet? Sure, Critters 3 and Critters 4: In Space are subpar sequels, but those first two are on point.
Hellraiser
Hellraiser had a pretty good release from Anchor Bay in 2009 that is now out of print. The Midnight Madness edition from Image Entertainment, which was released two years later, removed all of the special features. Now is the perfect time for Scream Factory to snatch up the film and give its Blu-Ray release a makeover. It would also be nice if they released a Hellraiser box set similar to the one Anchor Bay and Scream Factory did for the Halloween franchise two years ago, but maybe that’s asking for too much.
Demons
C’mon! It’s Lamberto Bava, and you’re going to give it a barebones Blu-Ray release (albeit with perfect audio and video transfers)? Demons deserves better than that. Scream Factory, if you released it as a double feature with Demons 2 (and get some new special features for each one) I’ll love you forever.
90s Horror
Candyman
How has Bernard Rose’s seminal horror film (which I am admittedly not crazy about, but I do see the appeal) not made it to Blu-Ray yet? After Hellraiser, it’s the most famous film adaptation of Clive Barker’s work. Scream Factory already released the sequel, but they haven’t been able to snag the licensing rights for the original yet. It’s such a shame.
Dead Alive
Fun fact: the VHS cover for this movie used to scare the crap out of me when I roamed Blockbuster as a kid. Anyway, Peter Jackson’s gory comedy was released on Blu-Ray back in 2011 with so-so video and audio and just a theatrical trailer in the special features. Where is the Peter Jackson commentary? I want an answer! If anyone can make that happen, it’s Scream Factory.
Event Horizon
Event Horizon already saw a pretty decent Blu-Ray release, but there was apparently a lot of footage left on the cutting room floor with tons of horrifying imagery. Methinks Scream Factory and Paul W.S. Anderson need to meet up and put together a Director’s Cut…
The Faculty
Honestly, I just want a cast commentary on this. You’ll laugh, but one of my favorite commentaries is the cast commentary of the 2002 Scooby-Doo movie. They’re just so fun to listen to! I feel like the cast of The Faculty would have the same chemistry. Just imagine feeling like you’re sitting in a room with Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Clea DuVall, Jordana Brewster, Usher and Laura Harris. Better yet, have one Student Commentary with those actors and one Faculty Commentary with Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick and Jon Stewart. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be awesome. The current Blu-Ray release of the film doesn’t have any extras so there’s nowhere to go but up!
Recent Horror
Slither
Why in the Hell is James Gunn’s masterful creature feature Slither not out on Blu-Ray yet (at least, once again, not in America)? You would think that after Gunn’s rise to fame after Guardians of the Galaxy some studio would have rushed to get this Blu-Ray released. Maybe the awful box office numbers are giving them pause. Either way, it deserves to see a proper Blu-Ray release.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
One of the most meta horror movies of all time saw a disappointing Blu-Ray release in 2009, when the format was still relatively new. Eight years later and a re-issue seems to be in order, especially considering the fact that there were no extra features included on that release. A sequel to the cult favorite has been talked about for some time. A new Blu-Ray loaded with special features courtesy of Scream Factory could certainly reignite talk of a much-needed sequel.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes
For God’s sake will someone release this movie already? If you were able to catch it when it received an extremely brief release on DirecTV in 2014 and felt disappointed, it’s understandable. The film was completed in 2007 (I still remember seeing the posters in the AMC Theaters I was working at at the time) and almost no film will live up to expectations that were in place that long. It’s by no means a terrible film, though. While some of the interview sequences come off as incredibly cheesy, the tapes themselves are terrifying. Could Scream Factory be the one to finally let The Poughkeepsie Tapes see the light of day? I certainly hope so.
Many of these films are relatively mainstream, and Scream Factory has an affinity for releasing lesser-known horror films with cult followings as well. Which horror films, mainstream or otherwise, do you want to see get the Scream Factory treatment? Let us know in the comments below!
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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