Happy Memorial Day, everyone! While you’re off enjoying some much-needed downtime with friends and family, we’ve gone ahead and put together a recap of this week’s horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases that are coming our way on May 30th.
For those of you cult film aficionados out there, get those wallets ready, because there’s a bunch of great titles arriving on Blu-ray this Tuesday, including Blackenstein, Evil Ed, The Blood of Fu Manchu / The Castle of Fu Manchu double feature, The Hearse, The Undertaker, Slaughterhouse Rock, and Hide and Go Shriek.
As far as new genre films go, The Blackcoat’s Daughter (one of my personal favorites of 2017) and Rupture are making their way to Blu-ray and DVD, with the Shock-O-Rama box set also coming out on DVD.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)
Beautiful and haunted Joan (Emma Roberts) makes a bloody and determined pilgrimage across a frozen landscape toward a prestigious all-girls prep school, where Rose (Lucy Boynton) and Kat (Kiernan Shipka) find themselves stranded after their parents mysteriously fail to retrieve them for winter break. As Joan gets closer, Rose watches in horror while Kat suffers terrifying visions and becomes possessed by an unseen force.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Blackenstein (Severin Films, Blu-ray)
Two Restored Versions Of The Most Notorious Blaxploitation Shocker Of Them All... And The Most Insane Backstory Ever.
You may have heard of this infamous Blaxploitation/Horror hybrid, but the real story is even more bizarre: In 1973, criminal-lawyer-turned-wannabe-monster-movie-mogul Frank R. Saletri wrote and produced this grindhouse hit about a Black soldier mortally wounded in Vietnam transformed into a rampaging monster by an L.A. mad scientist. Almost a decade later, Seletri himself would be murdered gangland-style in a crime that remains debated and unsolved to this day. John Hart (TV's "The Lone Ranger"), 40s Hollywood starlet Andrea King (THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS) and even former mob moll/stripper Liz Renay (DESPERATE LIVING) star in this jaw-dropper directed by William A. Levey (THE HAPPY HOOKER GOES TO WASHINGTON), now restored with all-new Special Features that spotlight the entire twisted saga!
Special Features:
The Blood of Fu Manchu/The Castle of Fu Manchu Double Feature (Blue Underground, Blu-ray)
THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU:
From his secret lair deep within the South American jungle, international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee of COUNT DRACULA) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) reveal their latest diabolical plot for world domination: ten beautiful women are infected with an ancient poison so deadly that one kiss from their lips will bring instant death and lead to a global plague. Now the Asian madman's nemesis, Nayland Smith (Richard Greene of TALES FROM THE CRYPT), must desperately hunt an antidote in a savage land where violence and torture reign and the ultimate evil lies in THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU.
Maria Rohm (VENUS IN FURS) and Shirley Eaton (GOLDFINGER) co-star in this wild Fu Manchu feature written and produced by Harry Alan Towers (EUGENIE) and directed by the one and only Jess Franco (VAMPYROS LESBOS). Also known as KISS AND KILL, AGAINST ALL ODDS, and KISS OF DEATH, Blue Underground presents THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU in High Definition, complete with additional scenes of violence!
Special Features for THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU:
The Rise of Fu Manchu - Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, & Shirley Eaton
Theatrical Trailers
Poster & Still Gallery
THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU:
Christopher Lee (THE LORD OF THE RINGS) returns as the diabolical super-villain who, along with his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of CASINO ROYALE), creates a fiendish new chemical weapon that will turn the seas into a giant block of ice. But when his archenemy Nayland Smith (Richard Greene of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD) tracks the madman's trail of kidnapping, murder and massive global destruction, he himself becomes trapped in Fu Manchu's impenetrable lair of cruelty. Can any of the world's top secret agents (including a wild performance by Jess Franco) stop the cold-blooded terror that lives in THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU?
Maria Perschy (THE GHOST GALLEON) and Rosalba Neri (99 WOMEN) co-star in this notorious sequel directed by Jess Franco (THE BLOODY JUDGE) that marked Christopher Lee's final performance as the infamous Chinese madman. Now Blue Underground presents THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU in High Definition, packed with Extras for a disc full of Fu Manchu mayhem!
Special Features for THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU:
The Fall of Fu Manchu - Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Christopher Lee & Tsai Chin
Theatrical Trailers
Poster & Still Gallery
Evil Ed: 3-Disc Limited Edition Set (Arrow Video, Blu/DVD Combo)
WHEN HIS MIND BLOWS, ANYTHING GOES!
A blood-soaked love letter to the splatter films of the 80s, video rental favourite Evil Ed returns in a brand-new Special EDition featuring an extended cut of the feature and hours of stomach-churning bonus features!
Mild-mannered film technician Edward enjoys his job. That is, until he finds himself transferred from his regular post to the Splatter and Gore department , where he s forced to edit hours upon hours of grisly video nasty footage. Traumatized by the onscreen violence, Ed starts to lose his grip on reality with ghastly (and bloody) consequences...
Owing a debt to films such as The Evil Dead, Re-animator and the early splatter classics of Peter Jackson, Evil Ed is a veritable smorgasbord of flying limbs, exploding heads, busty babes and creepy creatures!
3-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
DISCS 1 & 2 (BLU-RAY + DVD) THE SPECIAL ED-ITION CUT
DISC 3 (BLU-RAY) THE ORIGINAL CUT [LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE]
The Hearse (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu-ray)
Jane Hardy, a recently divorced teacher from San Francisco, decides to spend the summer at the large old country home willed to her by her aunt. However, upon arriving in the sleepy town where her aunt lived, she's met with hostility from the locals and slowly begins to discover her aunt's dark connections to witchcraft and the occult, all the while being menaced by a large black hearse that mysteriously drives near her house in the dead of night...
A chilling blend of supernatural horror and romantic mystery, THE HEARSE stars Trish Van Devere (THE CHANGELING), Joseph Cotten (SHADOW OF A DOUBT), and David Geautreaux (STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE) and was one of the few directorial efforts from prolific editor, George Bowers. Taking strong influence from European gothic horror films of the 1960s, THE HEARSE is a haunting and suspenseful, classically minded horror film and is proudly presented by Vinegar Syndrome on Blu-ray, newly restored in 2k from its original 35mm negative.
Bonus Features:
1. Newly scanned and restored in 2k from 35mm original camera negative
2. "Satan Get Behind Thee" - video interview with lead actor, David Gautreaux
3. Original theatrical trailer
4. TV spot
5. Promotional still gallery
6. Reversible cover artwork by Chris Garofalo
7. English SDH Subtitles
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
Dark Harvest (Intervision Picture Corp., DVD)
Hellbent (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu-ray)
Hide and Go Shriek (Kino Lorber, DVD)
Horror House on Highway Five (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu-ray & DVD)
The Jigsaw Murders (Kino Lorber, DVD)
Rupture (Lionsgate, DVD)
Shock-O-Rama Horror Collection (Bayview Entertainment, DVD)
Slaughterhouse Rock (Kino Lorber, DVD)
The Undertaker (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu/DVD Combo & DVD)
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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