This has been a pretty fantastic year thus far for DVD releases, and with each passing week it only gets better. This week’s Horror In Your House features all sorts of must-gets such as Sony Home Entertainment’s Red Sands (from the creators of Dead Birds) and new editions of The Last House on the Left and House on Haunted Hill. You can check out the full release list inside.
HORROR IN YOUR HOUSE
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

AN ANGEL FOR SATAN/THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH: Midnight Choir

THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH: A woman is accused of witchcraft and put to death. Her older daughter knows the real reason is the lord’s sexual desire for her. She confronts him as is also killed. The daughter mysteriously returns from the dead and begins to avenge her mother’s murder.

AN ANGEL FOR SATAN: Sculptor Roberto (Anthony Steffen) arrives in a small village to restore an ancient statue. He meets Harriet (Barbara Steele) who bears an amazing resemblance to the statue. Upon complete restoration of the statue, Steele begins to take on the psychotic traits of the woman upon whom the sculpture was based a woman the townspeople believe was a much-feared sorceress of local legend.

THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (Blu-ray): Blue Underground

In his first film as writer/director, Dario Argento single-handedly created the giallo genre and instantly emerged as the filmmaker critics worldwide hailed as ‘The Italian Hitchcock.’ Tony Musante and Suzy Kendall star in this pulse-pounding suspense thriller about an American writer in Rome who witnesses – and is helpless to stop – a brutal assault, the cunning vengeance of a maniac, and the heart-stopping horror that lives – and kills – deep in the dark.

BLACK ICE: SRS Cinema

Evelyn is a young woman beginning her journey into the world of love and sexual relationships. But she quickly finds out that the first time is never what you expect it to be… in fact, her first time is unlike anyone’s ever before, ending in bloodshed and carnage! Confused and misguided in her relationships by her close friend Chris, Evelyn finds herself sinking deeper and deeper into her growing fantasy and neglecting the rules of reality…and as a result the bodies start piling up! A bloodbath of torture and pain awaits anyone unfortunate enough to cross her path.

BLOOD, BOOBS & BEAST/NIGHTBEAST: Troma

BLOOD, BOOBS & BEAST tells the compelling story of Don Dohler (1946-2006), whose movies have been called everything from ‘oddly brilliant’ to some of the ‘worst films’; of all time. Despite his critics, Dohler managed to get international distribution for all 9 of his sci-fi and horror films, as well as TV syndication for his first film. Dohler also inspired artists and filmmakers such as Robert Crumb (Fritz the Cat), J.J. Abrams (Lost) and Art Spiegelman (Maus) with his DIY filmmaking magazine, Cinemagic.

CRIPPLED CREEK: S’more

This is the retelling of the events of the weekend of April 23rd 2004. Three young women, overjoyed at getting away from their hectic lives, go into the woods on a camping trip to a family cabin. As they enter the forest, the local ranger warns them about an old hermit who lives in the woods, and their joy soon turns to terror as the 3 girls realize that the forest contains other dangerous secrets. The gruesome murders begin and we realize the victims are little more than food for this watcher in the woods. Snares, long sharp knives, bear traps and branches all make for perfect ways to end the lives of these young adults who soon learn they are camping on haunted ground.

CYCLOPS: Anchor Bay

It is the pinnacle of the Roman Empire, a time of mighty gladiators, lusty women, and a ferocious one – eyed monster that slaughters those foolish enough to enter his forest domain. But the corrupt Emperor Tiberius has a plan to please the bloodlust of the people: Capture the creature and unleash him in the arena against his condemned slaves, including wrongfully imprisoned general Marcus Romulus. Now the ultimate battle between man and beast is about to begin… and Rome will taste the full fury of hell unleashed.

DARK AWAKENING: S’more

On the surface, Ray Ryan has it all. He’s a successful advertising executive with a new promotion, a nice home and a beautiful fiance. But underneath it all is a dark secret he’s finding increasing more difficult to hide. Ray’s nightmares are giving way to visions of his abusive father, unlocking a suppressed violence he finds he’s unable to control. When Ray brutally assaults a man in a parking lot, it leads to an investigation by an aging detective with an interesting past. Neither of them is prepared as the secrets begin to unfold over a thirty year old murder they’ve both struggled to keep buried.

EPITAPH: TLA

Set in a small Korean hospital, the once peaceful place is now a labyrinth of haunted corridors and the stage for frightful events: a medical student is inexplicably drawn to a beautiful dead girl; a troubled child is tortured by bloody visions of her dead parents; and a married couple find themselves investigating a series of gory murders.

FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET: Mya Communication (TEX’S PICK OF THE WEEK)

Roberto is a young handsome drummer playing in a rock band. For the last week he has been stalked by a mysterious guy with dark sunglasses. Roberto decides to put an end to this and follows his stalker in a deserted theatre. He confronts the man and accidentally kills him. At the same time, another mysterious stalker, with a weird mask, appears and takes pictures of the accidental murder. For Roberto and his girlfriend Mina it’s the beginning of a nightmare, and more murders will ensue soon.

THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY: Fox

Molly Hartley hopes that with her mother locked away in a mental ward, she can forget the violence of her family’s past and start over. She has found a new life, a new school and a new boyfriend. But when her secret past and haunting nightmares continue, Molly fears she has inherited her mother’s psychosis. What she doesn’t know is that she’s inherited something else…a secret far more horrifying than any fate she can imagine and a destiny she cannot avoid!

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL 50th Anniversary Edition: Raunchy Tonk

Johnny Legend presents a 50th Anniversary Edition of the classic William Castle film! Vincent Price stars as a millionaire who invites a group of people to spend a night in his house. If they survive the night they’ll get $10,000.

THE LAIR: The Complete Second Season: Liberation

In the first season of “The Lair,” when the bodies of young nameless men were turning up dead with grisly wounds to their necks, the trail lead an ambitious young journalist to explore a private gentlemen s club christened THE LAIR. There a devilishly attractive group of vampires waited to test the limits of the flesh. Season two picks up where one left off with many unanswered questions about the secret club and the future of its members.

THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT: MGM/Fox

A quartet of criminals–a distorted version of the nuclear family–kidnaps a pair of teenage girls and proceeds to ravage, rape, torture, and finally brutally murder them in the woods, unwittingly within walking distance of their rural home. The killers take refuge in the girls’ own home, but when the parents discover just who they are and what they’ve done, they plot violent retribution.

NIGHT OF THE JACKALS: Phoenix

Thinking her last mission was completed, Special Ops Assassin, Kera Moore retires and weds. However, her past has caught up with her as her last target, a crazed former US chemical weapons engineer, survived the hit and has brought his final batch of US financed neurotoxin with him. But this is not your typical poison, as it turns its victims into ravenous vampire like zombies, also known as the Jackals. To draw Kera out, her husband is kidnapped and she takes on the assistance of a homicide cop, a gangster and a chemist. With their help, she must unleash hell before the Jackals can take over the unsuspecting city. But how do you kill something that can’t die?

RED SANDS: Sony Pictures

As continuing battles rage in a war-torn country, a unit of U.S. soldiers is dispatched to seize and control a strategic road that runs past an abandoned stone house. En route, the soldiers discover an ancient stone statue hidden deep within an ancient ravine. Using the relic for target practice, they destroy it, unwittingly releasing a vengeful supernatural force that is about to wage a horrifying war on them in this taut, action-packed, psychological thriller.

REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE: Redemption USA

This surreal fairy-tale from acclaimed French horror director Jean Rollin follows two gun-toting nymphette schoolgirls as they stumble upon a lair of vampires. Almost devoid of dialogue, the story unfolds into a orgy of torture, rape, nudity and lesbianism as the young girls succumb to their bloodsucking fate.

THE SADIST: Raunchy Tonk

Three people stopping at a deserted desert gas station are taken hostage and terrorized by psychopathic thrill-killer Charles A. Tibbs and his mute girlfriend Judy. Hall shatters all previous conceptions as a giggling psychotic punk, creating one of the nastiest nutcases in screen history.

SCORPION WITH TWO TAILS: Mya Communication

Joan Barnard has recurring nightmares of ancient Etruscan sacrifice rites. She is an expert in Etruscan language and her husband Arthur is an archaeologist studying Etruscan tombs in Italy, but there is something more: in her nightmares she can see exactly the tomb where Arthur is working without having ever been there, and she foresees her husband’s death. Shortly after, Arthur is killed with his head twisted, just like the ancient Etruscans used to kill their sacrifice victims!

SCOURGE: Lionsgate

An ancient evil has reawakened and is rapidly infecting the unassuming town of Harborford, Washington. Every six hours it feeds on a new victim before it has to find a new host. Everyone can see what it does, but no one knows what it is. To stop it, they’ll have to find it…but with nowhere left to run and no place left to turn, the destruction of the SCOURGE is in the hands of the notorious town bad boy.

SUCCUBUS: THE DEMON: Redemption USA

A sinister and shocking horror mystery movie, Succubus marks the first US release from Finnish film company Blood Ceremony. The story follows Henri, a widower so feverishly obsessed in searching for answers to his wife’s death that he turns to the occult for clues, with diabolical consequences.

SWEENEY TODD/CRIMES IN THE DARK HOUSE: Raunchy Tonk

SWEENEY TODD: Mr. Slaughter proceeds to “polish off” his unwary customers who are then carved into tasty meat pies and sold on the streets of London.

CRIMES OF THE DARK HOUSE: Mr. Slaughter hammers a spike into the skull of a nobleman, then assumes his identity and embarks on an orgy of lechery, sadism, murder and mayhem.

THE WHIP AND THE BODY/CONSPIRACY OF TORTURE: Midnight Choir

WHIP AND THE BODY: In this creepy gothic shocker from Mario Bava, a sadistic, ghostly Christopher Lee tortures (by whipping) the lovely Dahlia Lavi, his brother’s wife and father’s mistress.

CONSPIRACY OF TORTURE: Set in 17th Century Italy, Beatrice Cenci is the teenage daughter of the crazed landowner and nobleman Francesco Cenci who keeps his daughter locked up in the dungeon of his castle and sexually abuses her as well.

WINDCROFT: Vanguard

On a remote farm in the sweeping hills of Pennsylvania, three lives are torn apart by love, abandonment, deception and murder. After the death of his father, John and his new wife, Diane, arrive to claim the estate. But John’s father bequeathed to him more than just the family farm, ad he is forced to face a heritage of madness and violence. As John’s past consumes his mind with increasing intensity, Diane finds friendship with his childhood sweetheart, Mindy. Soon old feelings are rekindled, family ties are tightened to a noose, and Mindy’s own secrets crack the very foundation of house and home.