Each week here at Bloody Disgusting we like to highlight some of the new Blu-ray releases hitting shelves across the world. Please note that this isn’t every release for the week, just a few of the ones that jumped out at us.

Welcome to the first New to Blu of 2016! 2015 ended with some light weeks of releases but 2016 is starting with a bang! A lot of good variety this week with a nice mix of older titles and more recent releases. If I had to pick on this week it would be the Criterion release of Lady Snowblood, but don’t stop there because there are lots of goodies to choose from!

US Releases

The Complete Lady Snowblood (Criterion, Region A)

Synopsis:
A young woman (Meiko Kaji), trained from childhood as an assassin and hell-bent on revenge for her father’s murder and her mother’s rape, hacks and slashes her way to gory satisfaction. Rampant with inventive violence and spectacularly choreographed swordplay, Toshiya Fujita’s pair of influential cult classics Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance, set in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan, respectively, are bloody, beautiful extravaganzas composed of one elegant widescreen composition after another. The first Lady Snowblood was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill saga, and both of Fujita’s films remain cornerstones of Asian action cinema.

The Visit (Universal, Region A)

Synopsis:
A single mother finds that things in her family’s life go very wrong after her two young children visit their grandparents.

The Green Inferno (Universal, Region A)

Synopsis:
A group of student activists travel from New York City to the Amazon to save a dying tribe but crash in the jungle and are taken hostage by the very natives they protected.

Fantômas: 5-Film Collection (Kino Lorber, Region A)

Synopsis:
Based on the phenomenally popular French pulp novellas, Louis Feuillade’s outrageous, ambitious FANTÔMAS series became the gold standard of espionage serials in pre-WWI Europe, and laid the foundation for such immortal works as Feuillade’s own Les Vampires and Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse films.

René Navarre stars as the criminal lord of Paris, the master of disguise, the creeping assassin in black: Fantômas. Over the course of five feature films (which combined to form a 5 1/2-hour epic), Fantômas, along with his accomplices and mistresses, are pursued by the equally resourceful Inspector Juve (Edmund Bréon) and his friend, journalist Jerôme Fandor (Georges Melchior).

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (Paramount, Region A)

Synopsis:
Three scouts who, on the eve of their last campout, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak.

The House Where Evil Dwells/Ghost Warrior (Scream Factory, Region A)

Synopsis:
Moving into a new house can be frightening. Moving into this one is deadly. Edward Albert (MIMIC 2), Susan George (STRAW DOGS) and Doug McClure (MAVERICK) star in this horrifying haunted house tale about a young American family moving into an old Japanese house where the dead don’t rest…and history is about to repeat itself. A century ago, a samurai brutally murdered his adulterous wife and her lover before taking his own life. Now, the Fletcher family has found what they think is their perfect Japanese home — not knowing it’s the same house where the murders occurred. But as strange events escalate and the ghosts of the dead toy with the living, the Fletchers discover they’ve become unwitting players in a horrible reenactment…one which they may not survive!

Synopsis:
A deep-frozen 400-year-old samurai is shipped to Los Angeles, where he comes back to life.

Spellbinder (Scorpion Releasing, Region A)

Synopsis:
When Los Angeles lawyer Jeff Mills and his friend Derek Clayton rescue a beautiful young woman from an apparently abusive boyfriend, the trouble starts. Jeff unknowing becomes involved with Miranda Reed and the web of intrigue that follows her. But as the two became lovers, Jeff learns that Miranda is on the run from the witches coven (to which she belongs). Miranda tells Jeff of her situation, but not the entire truth, and Jeff willingly helps Miranda out of her troubles, but creates his own.

Yongary, Monster from the Deep (Kino Lorber, Region A)

Synopsis:
A terrifying earthquake spreads across Korea followed by a tremendous explosion. Yongary, a prehistoric monster, rises from Earth destroying everything in its path as it makes its way towards Seoul. The monster lives on gasoline, eats tanks and planes and is finally stopped with a refrigerant chemical.

Deathgasm (MPI Media Group, Region A)

Synopsis:
Two teenagers who have started a heavy metal band unwittingly stumble upon an ancient text that contains a musical spell for summoning a powerful demon.

Over Your Dead Body (Scream Factory, Region A)

Synopsis:
A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the play, even though he’s a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina (Miho Nakanishi) and Jun Suzuki (Hideaki Ito) lust after Miyuki. Off stage the cast’s possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the play and reality, the cast’s feelings for each other are amplified. When it becomes clear that love is not meant to be both on and off stage, love turns into a grudge and crosses the blurred line between reality and fantasy.

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (Kino Lorber, Region A)

Synopsis:
Oceanographer Ted Stevens meets Bill Grant, government investigator, at the scene of another beach murder caused by a hideous sea monster that stands guard over a glowing underwater uranium mine. Meanwhile marine biologist Professor King, who created the monster in his laboratory, is being pursued by a beautiful femme fatale who is blackmailing or killing everyone in sight in an effort to acquire King’s top secret files for the Russians. This film is an often dreamlike, comically surreal study in paranoid ’50s sociology. It provides an insightful time capsule of attitudes prevalent at the time…

The Captive City (Kino Lorber, Region A)

Synopsis:
A small town newspaperman’s investigation into a local bookie operation turns up a web of organized crime.

Condemned (Image, Region A)

Synopsis:
Fed up with her parents’ bickering, poor-little-rich-girl Maya moves in with her boyfriend who is squatting in an old, condemned building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. With neighbors that are meth heads, junkies and degenerates, this depraved hell hole is even more toxic than it appears.

UK Releases

Hercules (101 Films, Region B)

Synopsis:
The film is a retelling of the story of Hercules battling the wizard Minos, who uses “science” in an attempt to take over the world. Hercules must stop him and rescue his princess love in the process.

The Trip (Signal One Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
Hedonism isn’t just for breakfast anymore. Or so learns TV commercial director Paul (Peter Fonda) on his first LSD trip — a mind-blowing passage through surreal images and stroboscopic light shows. Written by Jack Nicholson and directed by Roger Corman, THE TRIP takes you to a whole new world of extreme beauty and sheer terror — on a passport the size of a stamp!

Mr. Majestyk (Signal One Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
A melon farmer battles organized crime and a hit man who wants to kill him.

The Adventures of Hercules II (101 Films, Region B)

Synopsis:
Hercules searches for the Seven Thunderbolts of Zeus, which have been stolen by renegade gods.

Gas-s-s-s (Signal One Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
A gas is let loose upon the world that kills anyone over 25 years old.

Australia Releases

Blind Fury (Cinema Cult, Region B)

Synopsis:
Blinded and left to die in Vietnam, Nick Parker has been missing in action for more than two decades. Finally home, he sets out to find and forgive his old Army buddy.

Happy Birthday to Me (Cinema Cult, Region B)

Synopsis:
Popular high school senior Virginia Wainwright survives a freak accident, but suffers from memory loss and traumatic blackouts. As she attempts to resume a normal life, something terrible is happening – her friends are ruthlessly murdered one-by-one.

Z for Zachariah (Roadshow Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
In the wake of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization, two men and a young woman find themselves in an emotionally charged love triangle as the last known survivors.

Jason and the Argonauts (Via Vision Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
Jason, a fearless sailor and explorer, returns to the kingdom of Thessaly after a 20-year voyage to make his rightful claim to the throne. But to do so, Jason must first find the magical Golden Fleece. He selects a crew and with the help of Hera, Queen of the Gods, sets sail in search of the Fleece. Jason and his crew must overcome incredible obstacles including a 100-foot bronze giant, the venomous Hydraa huge creature with the heads of seven snakes, and a battle with an army of skeletons.

Bloodsucking Bastards (Reel, Region B)

Synopsis:
When an office worker at a soul-crushing company loses his coveted promotion to his longtime nemesis, he begins to fear for more than his job as strange disappearances and bizarre deaths suggest the office is turning into a haven for the undead.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (Via Vision Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
This colorful adventure is the screen version of one of the classic tales from “1001 Arabian Nights.” It tells the story of Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) and Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant). When they unexpectedly stop on the island of Colossa on their way to Baghdad, they find themselves battling all types of dangers, such as evil magicians, man-eating Cyclopes, fire- breathing dragons, and sword-wielding skeletons.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (Via Vision Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
Sinbad must deliver a prince transformed into a monkey to the lands of the Ademaspai to restore him to his human form in time for his coronation. On the way he must contend with the evil witch Zenobia, her son and their magic, and several nasty-looking Ray Harryhausen beasties.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Via Vision Entertainment, Region B)

Synopsis:
Sinbad and his crew intercept a homunculus carrying a golden tablet. Koura, the creator of the homunculus and practitioner of evil magic, wants the tablet back and pursues Sinbad. Meanwhile Sinbad meets the Vizier who has another part of the interlocking golden map, and they mount a quest across the seas to solve the riddle of the map, accompanied by a slave girl with a mysterious tattoo of an eye on her palm. They encounter strange beasts, tempests, and the dark interference of Koura along the way. It was this film that lead to the casting of Tom Baker in his most iconic role. The 4th Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’.

Demonic (Reel, Region B)

Synopsis:
A police officer and a psychologist investigate the deaths of five people who were killed while trying to summon ghosts.