DVD and Blu-ray Releases: July 7, 2015
All right, fellow gore aficionados. This week’s list is here. First things first: In the June 23rd release list, I made note of 1976’s Jack the Ripper release date being moved to July 7th. I try to keep track of movie release dates months in advance and then verify them again a few days before publishing my article. At the time, Jack the Ripper had been relisted for July 7th. When the time came to verify this week’s list, the release date for Jack the Ripper had been moved back to June 23rd. I’m not sure what happened there, but I felt it was best to let my (hopefully) faithful readers know that they have actually been able to satisfy their Klaus Kinski cravings for the past two weeks.
On a slightly related note, The Horror of H.P. Lovecraft DVD release date has (so far as I know) been moved back to August 25th.
Out of this week’s twelve selections, four of them fall into the classics category. Up first is 1974’s Spasmo, which will be seeing both Blu-ray and DVD releases. Contamination has a 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD set coming out this week as well. Rounding out our classics are the Blu-ray releases of Deranged and, from 1968, Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee (R.I.P.) in The Crimson Cult.
In terms of more recent flicks, The Cell (somewhat recent) will be coming out on Blu-ray along with the DVD and Blu-ray release of this year’s Maggie, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin in a more human take on the typically gore-saturated zombie genre.
Lastly, for those of you who enjoy their horror with more than a dash of the Syfy Channel, we present to you Mega Shark vs. Kolossus. It’s nice when there’s something for everyone, isn’t it? Have a good week, folks. Pleasant viewing.
MOVIES
The Cell (2000)
Starring:
Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jake Weber
Synopsis:
In this science fiction thriller, child psychiatrist Catherine Deane (Golden Globe-nominee Jennifer Lopez: Selena, Maid in Manhattan) has developed a technique that allows her to travel through the minds of her patients. When Stargher (Emmy Award-nominee Vincent Donofrio: TV’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, Full Metal Jacket), a serial killer who methodically drowns his victims and performs bizarre rituals with their bodies, falls into a coma, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn: Wedding Crashers, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) asks Deane to enter the killers psyche in hopes of finding the location of a missing girl whom Stargher has kidnapped and, if she isn’t found soon, will drown in her torture cell. However, once Deanne enters the bizarre world of Starghers mind, she finds getting out being a very difficult matter.
Purchase:
Contamination (1980)
Starring:
Ian Mcculloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Masé
Synopsis:
Branded as a video nasty in the UK, director Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination takes the premise of Ridley Scott’s classic Alien and peppers it with exploding guts galore and a dangerously infectious soundtrack from celebrated Italian prog-rockers Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria). A cargo ship drifts up the Hudson River. Its crew: all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, turned inside out by an unknown force. Its freight: boxes upon boxes of glowing, pulsating green eggs. It soon becomes clear that these eggs are not of this planet, and someone intends to cultivate them here on Earth. But who? And to what end? Starring Italian horror veteran Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters), Contamination is an ultra-violent sci-fi epic that really gets under the skin. In space, no one can hear you scream – but on Earth, the terror rings loud and clear!
Purchase:
The Crimson Cult (1968)
Starring:
Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Barbara Steele, Michael Gough
Synopsis:
When his brother disappears, Robert Manning (Mark Eden) pays a visit to the remote country house he was last heard from. While his host Squire Morley (Christopher Lee, The Oblong Box) is welcoming, Manning detects a feeling of menace in the air with the legend of Lavinia (Barbara Steele, Black Sunday), the Black Witch of Greymarsh, hanging over everything. Will the village`s renowned expert on witchcraft, Professor John Marsh (Boris Karloff, Black Sabbath), be able to shed light on the wicked going-ons at The Craxted Lodge? Vernon Sewell (Ghost Ship) directs this nightmarish horror classic based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Dream in the Witch House .
Purchase:
Dark Summer (2015)
Starring:
Keir Gilchrist, Maestro Harrell, Peter Stormare
Synopsis:
This truly frightening, modern ghost story follows Daniel Williamson (Keir Gilchrist of It Follows, United States Of Tara and Dead Silence), a 17-year-old boy under house arrest for cyber-stalking a classmate. With his mother away on business, obsessive Daniel flirts with the idea of reconnecting with the classmate, Mona (Grace Phipps of Fright Night). But fate has different ideas for him when Mona is driven to desperate measures and Daniel discovers that someone (or something) is now stalking him. With the tables turned, Daniel becomes trapped in a house he cannot leave… with a malicious presence he can’t escape.
Purchase:
Deranged (1974)
Starring:
Roberts Blossom, Cosette Lee, Leslie Carlson
Synopsis:
The Confessions of a Necrophile! Ezra’s good at making friends… into home furnishings! Based on the terrifying true story of Ed Gein, that inspired Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs, this hauntingly scary film chronicles the grisly exploits of a rural necrophiliac and murderer! Brace yourself for a classic horror story that’s guaranteed to make you bite your nails… because if you don’t, Ezra will! Screenwriter Alan Ormsby (Cat People) wrote and co-directed this spine-tingling horror film that will make your skin crawl with actor Jeff Gillen (A Christmas Story). Starring Roberts Blossom (Home Alone) as Ezra Cobb and Cosette Lee as Ma Cobb.
Purchase:
Fight of the Living Dead (2015)
Starring:
Prank vs. Prank, Joey Graceffa, iJustine, Strawburry17, Olga Kay
Synopsis:
A competition series with horror overtones, Fight Of The Living Dead (FOTLD) is an unprecedented mash-up of the reality and scripted genres. The show will follow 8 top YouTube stars as they attempt to survive the first 24 hours of a highly simulated Zombie Apocalypse. The only prize is survival.
Purchase:
Maggie (2015)
Starring:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin
Synopsis:
As the world narrowly recovers from a near apocalyptic virus, an infected teenage girl with only a precious few weeks to live must find the strength and bravery to face her fleeting mortality as her father struggles helplessly to protect her from the frightened town and keep the family together. This heartbreaking take on the zombie genre twists expectations and puts a human face on an inexplicable horror.
Purchase:
Mega Shark vs. Kolossus (2015)
Starring:
Illeana Douglas, Amy Rider, Ernest L Thomas, Brody Hutzler
Synopsis:
When a new Mega Shark appears, it threatens the global economy. Scared of being left behind, Russia accidentally reawakens the Kolossus, a giant automaton doomsday device built during the Cold War, in its search for new energy. Now the world must figure out how to stop the two deadly creatures before they destroy everything on sea AND land.
Purchase:
The Pact 2 (2014)
Starring:
Caity Lotz, Camilla Luddington
Synopsis:
Picking up only a few weeks after the events in the new horror classic The Pact left off, this stunning sequel finds June Abbott (Camilla Luddington, Grey s Anatomy) plagued by nightmares of murder so awful that they disturb her waking life. Meanwhile, a copycat of the Judas Killer has been terrorizing her neighborhood, and when the FBI agent assigned to the case informs her of the danger, June is horrified to discover that the actions of this new killer mirror the bloody visions she s been having in her sleep. Determined to pursue her own investigation even while her grip on reality weakens, June sets off on a quest that may lead her to the horrifying truth of the Judas Killer s master plan.
Purchase:
Spasmo (1974)
Starring:
Suzy Kendall, Robert Hoffmann, Monica Monet
Synopsis:
Suspense and surprises lurk around the corner in one of the most daring Italian shockers of the 1970s. A mysterious, beautiful woman (Suzy Kendall, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) washes up on a desolate beach, setting off a perplexing chain of events involving the young, wealthy, and mentally unstable Christian (Robert Hoffman), his concerned brother Fritz (Ivan Rassimov, Jungle Holocaust), a murderous maniac on the loose, and female mannequins punctured with knives. Featuring a powerful score by the legendary Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), this riveting thriller from director Umberto Lenzi (Cannibal Ferox) is a haunting masterpiece of deception and madness.
Purchase:
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2015)
Starring:
Addison Timlin, Veronica Cartwright, Anthony Anderson, Gary Cole, Edward Herrmann
Synopsis:
65 years after a series of brutal slayings terrorized the small town of Texarkana, the “Moonlight Murders” suddenly begin again.
While on a trip to Lovers’ Lane, 17-year-old Jami (Addison Timlin) watches as her date is brutally slain by a masked serial killer. Barely escaping with her life, she becomes obsessed with finding the man referred to as “”The Phantom.”” As the body count climbs and the carnage comes closer, Jami delves deeper into the mystery, following clues that point her toward the killer’s true identity. Starring Anthony Anderson, Gary Cole, Edward Herrman, Joshua Leonard, Denis O’Hare, Travis Tope and Veronica Cartwright, The Town That Dreaded Sundown puts Texarkana back on the map for all the wrong reasons.
Purchase:
Trophy Heads (2015)
Starring:
Adam Noble Roberts
Synopsis:
It’s the present day, and our heroines, real life Scream Queens Darcy DeMoss, Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer, Jacqueline Lovell, and Denice Duff, who starred in those infamous movies back in the 80’s and 90’s, have gone on with their lives since those days, some still acting or in new businesses of their own. What none of them suspect is that somewhere, down in the basement of an old house, an obsessed fan, Max, sits in the dark, watching clips from those movies over and over, his obsession growing into a diabolical plan.
One by one, with his mother’s help, he begins to “collect” them, transporting them to a makeshift prison he’s set up in his basement. The Scream Queens have no idea what’s going on, until they find themselves forced to re-enact movie scenes from their horror heyday, a nightmarish process since Max remembers every line and gesture and they haven’t watched them in years. And they definitely don’t remember the new and terrible outcome of the scenes…
Purchase:
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