dvd

When it comes to horror DVDs, September and October have always been like an early Christmas for me, except that I have to buy for myself. Still, new releases of interesting genre titles have always been abundant in the autumn, and this year is no different. With much difficulty, we've winnowed down the list of our most anticipated releases to just six, which we present below, in order of release.(read more...)

I am Nate Yapp, author of the website article you are about to read. I feel obligated to warn you that some of the sensations, some of the physical reactions which the writers on the site will feel discussing Sony's upcoming William Castle Film Collection will also be experienced, for the first time in Classic-Horror.com history, by certain members of the reading audience. I say "certain members" because some people are more sensitive to the potential awesomeness of a William Castle box set than others. These fortunate people will feel a strange, tingling sensation when they hear that the set will contain 13 Ghosts, Homicidal, Strait-Jacket, The Tingler, Mr. Sardonicus, and, making their DVD debuts, 13 Frightened Girls, The Old Dark House (1963), and Zotz!  Some will feel it less strongly than others, but only because I forgot to add that the full-length documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story will also be included.(read more...)

Lionsgate Home Entertainment will release a new special edition of Rankin-Bass's horror-themed animated movie Mad Monster Party on September 8th, 2009, according to DVDActive. The DVD, which has a suggested retail price of $14.98, will include a featurette (Groovy Ghouls: The Making of Mad Monster Party), the theatrical trailer, and two sing-alongs.

Baron Von Frankenstein (voice of Boris Karloff) has decided to retire as the head of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters.  But first, he must inform the other monsters about his plans.  How to deliver the news?  How else - through a Mad Monster Party!  Von Frankenstein’s guests include a who’s who of Halloween favorites, including The Werewolf, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and more. But who among them is fit to be the new head of the monsters?

It appears that the Karloff/Lugosi box set that Warner Home Video promised back in March is a sure thing, as they have officially announced the release of Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics on October 3rd, 2009. The set will contain four films -- The Walking Dead (Michael Curtiz, 1936), Frankenstein 1970 (Howard W. Koch, 1958 - presented in anamorphic widescreen),You'll Find Out (David Butler, 1940), and Zombies on Broadway (Gordon Douglas, 1945). Special features will include two commentary tracks: one on The Walking Dead with Gregory Mank (author of Hollywood Cauldron, an excellent book which devotes a full chapter to the film) and another featuring Tom Weaver and actress Charlotte Austin discussing Frankenstein 1970. Suggested retail price for Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics is $26.98.

Roman Polanski's seminal cinematic headtrip, Repulsion (1965), hasn't really received the DVD treatment it so richly deserves... until now, that is. The Criterion Collection has announced a July 28th release date for their edition of Repulsion, available in both DVD and Blu-ray formats.(read more...)

Bloody-Disgusting brings the very welcome news that Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps, a film long absent from the home video market, will finally be coming out on DVD this October from Sony Home Video. According to DVD producer Michael Felsher in a chat with the horror podcast Deadpit.com, Dekker himself is putting together a director's cut that restores the original ending and that they are "going balls to the wall with the special features in it." I, for one, am excited as hell.(read more...)

In their annual chat with the Home Theater Forum, representatives from Warner Bros. Home Video announced that a Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi DVD box set was being prepped for a Halloween release. The four movies in the set will be The Walking Dead (Michael Curtiz, 1936), You'll Find Out (David Butler, 1940), Zombies on Broadway (Gordon Douglas, 1945), and Frankenstein 1970 (Howard W. Koch, 1958 - presented in anamorphic widescreen). The information appears in the chat transcript just over halfway down the page.(read more...)

Warner Bros., the studio that has the largest film library in the world, has taken a new approach to the problem of diminishing returns on archival releases. They've launched a new home entertainment label, the Warner Archive, a made-on-demand outfit that will offer a number of archival titles for $19.95 each through the new website WarnerArchive.com. Instead of mass-producing these DVDs, each one will be manufactured, along with its case art, as it is ordered. The shrink-wrapped DVD will then be shipped within five days of purchase.(read more...)

I'm trying something new this week that will hopefully become a regular feature. Too often I read some really interesting blog post or news snippet and think to myself, "Gosh, the readers at Classic-Horror would dig this," only to be waylaid by the follow-up, "Yeah, but think of all the text regurgitation you'll have to do just to make it a proper news story." The actual news copy is the part I struggle with the most, so instead, I'm doing a weekly round-up of links to posts that I find noteworthy.(read more...)

If you're struggling to think up a last minute present that will shock and delight the horror fan in your life, Classic-Horror.com has some suggestions that will give you the breakthrough you need!(read more...)