Editorials
2011 BLACK FRIDAY CHOPPING LIST: FILMS & TV
It’s that time of year again. While 2011 wasn’t exactly a banner year for horror films it wasn’t terrible either. Even an average year has plenty of merits and we’ve compiled a list of some of the best stuff released on DVD/Blu since the last time the Chopping List rolled around. Occasionally we dip our toes outside of the genre a touch when it comes to extremely violent masked vigilante movies or your last chance in the foreseeable future to pick up the complete adventures of a certain boy wizard (hey, it’s got monsters and sh*t) but we always wade back into the gore eventually. And if you ever wanted a couple of exhaustive looks at Return Of The Living Dead, 2011 is your year.
So, without further ado – here’s the Film/TV portion of our annual Chopping List! Feel free to toss in some of your own ideas into the comment section.
List Price: $39.99
This is an inexpensive and fascinating way to chart the semi-decline of a promising horror franchise. The original Scream still holds up magnificently. Scream 2 has its moments, including more brutal kills than the original, but loses credibility completely once the second killer is revealed. It’s a moment the franchise never recovers from. Scream 3 has some stale goofy charm but there’s not much to love and there’s absolutely no logic to it. While this box set omits Scream 4 due to rights issues it does contain the wonderful feature-length documentary Still Screaming.
List Price: $22.99 (Blu-ray)/$19.99 (DVD)
Easily one of my favorite movies of the year. Joe Cornish combines an airtight script with a surprisingly assured directorial hand and guides his ensemble to some truly funny, horrific and touching heights. It’s like if Critters was a socio-economic aware film directed by a future Academy Award winner (Cornish is going to win one at some point in his career – no question). Three commentary tracks enlivened by exec producer Edgar Wright and the cast as well as a feature length documentary round out the package.
List Price: $29.98 (Blu-ray)/$24.98 (DVD)
Not technically a horror movie, but it has some horrific moments and more gore than several of the films on this list combined. James Gunn’s Super is a very extreme and personal film that takes a much more real-world look at the repercussions of masked vigilantes than Kick-Ass did. Ellen Page gives a particularly strong performance in a film so intense, hilarious and unexpected that it should warm most horror fans’ hearts. James Gunn is an amazingly frank person and his commentary track with Rainn Wilson is not to be missed.
List Price: $14.99 (Blu-ray)
Because what would the holidays be without another edition of The Evil Dead 2 on Blu-ray? In all seriousness though this edition boasts a brand new transfer and a making-of documentary longer than the film itself – something the other versions didn’t have. So even though your recipient may think of it as a gag gift at first, something to add to his/her Evil Dead 2 shelf, there’s actually more here than meets the eye which makes it a worthy (and thrifty) purchase.
List Price: $79.98 (Blu-ray)
Holy sh*t is this set worth it! I’m not even the biggest Jurassic Park fan but these stellar transfers truly took me back in time to when I first saw the original in theaters. But the real story here are the absolutely exhaustive extras. Each of the three films has its own treasure trove of making-of docs, galleries and interviews. It’s especially a thrill to see Spielberg the set of The Lost World, a film he was widely rumored to have overseen remotely. Any fan of Spielber or the films will be wowed by this set. And any fan of film in general has got to appreciate these extras.
List Price: $69.99 (Blu-ray)/$59.98 (DVD)
I’ve only ever seen a few episodes of this show, and while I really dig what I’ve been exposed to thus far, I can’t pretend to be an expert. So this is a basic reminder that if there’s a “Supernatural” fan in your life, they’re likely to be pretty hardcore about it and you can’t go wrong with this (though you may want to sniff around a bit to see if they already have it).
List Price: $29.97 (Blu-ray)/$27.97 (DVD)
Why is this on the list? Didn’t I give it a bad review Yes, yes I did. But if you’ll recall the gist of my piece, a lot of it had to do not only with how truly bad Tim Sullivan’s segment “I Was A Teenage Werebear” is, but how it utterly robbed the remainder of the film of any charm as well. I suspect that the whole thing will play more like a 7/10 on Blu/DVD when you can just skip over Sullivan’s segment. There’s also a commentary track with Adam Green, Adam Rifkin, Joe Lynch and Tim Sullivan which promises to be entertaining as well. Green and Lynch can tear up those commentary tracks.
List Price: $139.99 (Blu-ray)/$98.92 (DVD)
Another entry on the list, that despite mage and death, doesn’t really qualify as horror at all. But come on, it’s friggin’ Harry Potter and there’s definitely some overlap in fanbases. Plus, most of these movies are really good! It’s a handy chance to give someone on your life all 8 films in the series on Blu for only around 10 bucks a film (if you go for the Amazon discount). It’s also worth noting that Warner Brothers is pulling a Disney and discontinuing all Potter film sales (Blu/DVD/Digital Downloads) at the end of the year. So unless you want to wait another year or two to pick these up for someone, now’s the time!
List Price: $29.98 (Blu-ray)/$26.98 (DVD)
If you’ve got someone in your family that likely already has most of this year’s more mainstream releases, give them a surprise with Troll Hunter. It’s a great little found footage movie that actually delivers some consistent fun and thrills. Bonus? You’ll look cool for giving them something they’ve probably never heard of that might become a new favorite of theirs.
List Price: $24.99 (Blu-ray)
While this year’s remake wasn’t absolutely horrible, it was fairly unnecessary and could in no way compete with with quality of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 original Straw Dogs. While this Blu-ray edition has virtually none of the extras that bulked up the earlier Criterion DVD, it does have pristine picture and sound. The grain on the transfer of this brilliant study on gender roles and masculinity is absolutely fantastic. If you’ve got someone younger on your holiday list who fancies themselves a connoisseur of brutal horror, hand this over and let the last 20 minutes put them to the test.
List Price: $59.97 (Blu-ray)/$49.97 (DVD)
Never seen it. Haven’t heard great things. But there’s like 5 million fans of this thing so I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that this special edition would totally make the day of someone who does like it. Never say I wasn’t selfless!
List Price: $19.99 (Blu-ray)
Hi-def Freddy Krueger! What is it about the Nightmare and Friday The 13th franchises that they can’t manage to get past issuing their third installments on Blu-ray? I want to see The Final Chapter and The Dream Master in HD! Anyway, this contains the new transfers of subtextually (or just textually) interesting Freddy’s Revenge along with arguably the best sequel in the franchise Dream Warriors. Extras are slight, but for completists you can’t go wrong.
List Price: $24.95 (Blu-ray)
On its own this movie is only so-so. But if you know a fan of either Bruce Campbell or Tom Atkins then this is the perfect way to say, “I know who you are and I love you”. Maniac Cop is a fun, slight romp made all the better by the kind of psychological projection and nostalgia only a true fan of the genre or stars can bring to the table. This also may be the skinniest Bruce Campbell has ever been on film, so if you’re having a lot of egg-nog you should toggle back and forth between this and “Burn Notice” and blow your mind. One day you’ll be middle aged too.
List Price: $64.99 (Blu-ray)/$54.99 (DVD)
How many serial killers can Miami possibly have? I mean there’s Dexter himself, obviously a constant. Then there’s at least one serial killer per season he’s either gotta match up with and take out. Maybe serial killers are literally cold blooded and are attracted to the Miami heat? I actually like this show, though I missed this season and from what I hear it shook up the formula a bit. There’s a lot of fans of Michael C. Hall’s lovable slasher out there, and if you want to keep one occupied for 13 hours or so this is the way to go.
List Price: $39.99 (Blu-ray & DVD Combo)/$29.99 (DVD)
This year marks the very first year you can give the gift of Rare Exports. Not many things combine horror and the holidays better than a plucky young Finnish kid battling an evil evil Santa Claus. This year saw the release of The Thing (2011), but in the battle of films where you don’t want something thawed out – the Santa in this movie is much more menacing (and far more entertaining).
List Price: $19.95 (DVD)
This is actually a late addition to the list, but after I saw More Brains just recently I immediately realized what a perfect addition it is to the collection of any fan of Return Of The Living Dead. At 2 hours, it’s a good sight longer than the movie and that’s even *before* you get to the supplements detailing >Parts 2 and 3. The most touching extra, however, is a 30 minute interview with Dan O’Bannon conducted shortly before his death in which he confesses if he had to do it all over again he would have been much more patient with his cast and crew. Also, if you pre-order at the link below before December 20th, you get a free poster signed by signed by Beverly Randolph (“Tina”), Brian Peck (“Scuz”) and James Karen (“Frank”)!
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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