For the brand new Blu-ray and DVD offerings coming out on Tuesday, July 18th, we have an eclectic assortment of titles, both new and old. As far as cult classics go, The Bat People, Freeway, Stalker, and Stormy Monday are all making their HD debuts on Blu this week, and if you missed Kong: Skull Island, Free Fire or Buster’s Mal Heart during their theatrical runs, now you’ll have a chance to catch up with these films on their home entertainment releases.
Other notable release for July 18th include Resident Evil: Vendetta, Another Evil, Lake Alice, and The Expanse: Season Two.
The Bat People (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Half Man, Half Bat, All Terror!
From director Jerry Jameson (Airport 77, Raise The Titanic) comes a high-flying horror from the darkest corner of the drive-in: The Bat People!
When Dr. John Beck and his wife Cathy fall into an underground cave, a huge bat attacks them, biting the good doctor. Thinking it’s only a scratch, Beck avoids treatment, and soon wakes to find himself transformed into a horrifying man-bat creature! Now one with the night, Beck embarks on a killing spree to conceal what he’s become, and he won’t stop until he once again has the one thing his new existence is missing ... his beautiful wife! This monster chiller stars real-life couple, Stewart Moss and Marianne McAndrew!
Buster’s Mal Heart (Well Go USA, Blu-ray & DVD)
In this bold thriller peppered with dark humor and interlocking mystery, an eccentric mountain man is on the run from the authorities, surviving the winter by breaking into empty vacation homes in a remote community. Regularly calling into radio talk shows where he has acquired the nickname "Buster" to rant about the impending Inversion at the turn of the millennium, he is haunted by visions of being lost at sea, and memories of his former life as a family man.
Buster (Rami Malek) was once Jonah, a hard-working husband and father whose job as the night-shift concierge at a hotel took its toll on his psyche and, consequently, his marriage to the sensitive Marty (Kate Lyn Sheil) until a chance encounter with a conspiracy-obsessed drifter (DJ Qualls) changed the course of their lives forever. As the solitary present-day Buster drifts from house to house, eluding the local sheriff at every turn, we gradually piece together the events that fractured his life and left him alone on top of a snowy mountain, or perhaps in a small rowboat in the middle of a vast ocean or both, in this visceral mind bender that will provoke discussion long after it turns your world upside-down.
Free Fire (Lionsgate, Blu/Digital HD & DVD)
Free Fire is an electrifying action-thriller about an arms deal that goes spectacularly and explosively wrong. Set in 1970s Boston, the film opens with Justine (Brie Larson), a mysterious American businesswoman, and her wise-cracking associate Ord (Armie Hammer) arranging a black-market weapons deal in a deserted warehouse between IRA arms buyer Chris (Cillian Murphy) and shifty South African gunrunner Vernon (Sharlto Copley). What starts as a polite if uneasy exchange soon goes south when tensions escalate and shots are fired, quickly leading to a full-on battle royale where it's every man (and woman) for themselves.
Freeway (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray)
Newly Re-mastered in HD! There s a killer on the road... and on the radio! There are 600 miles of freeway in Los Angeles. Every night, millions of angry motorists speed through its asphalt maze. Some of them have guns. One of them enjoys killing people. Now a traumatized ER nurse (Darlanne Fluegel, Tough Guys, Running Scared), an acerbic talk-radio host (Richard Belzer, Law & Order: SVU) and a stranger with a dark secret (James Russo, Beverly Hills Cop) must join to stop the bible-quoting madman (Billy Drago, Delta Force 2) who has promised the panicked city one final fast lane massacre. Michael Callan (Cat Ballou), Steve Franken (The Party), Kenneth Tobey (The Thing from Another Planet), Roy Clark (Hee Haw) and Clint Howard (Ice Cream Man) co-star in this suspense thriller co-written and directed by television and music video veteran Francis Delia (Crime Story) that shocked audiences at the height of LA's real-life freeway shooting sprees.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Interview with Director Francis Delia | Trailers
Kong: Skull Island (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 3D Blu/Blu/Digital HD & Blu/DVD/Digital)
When a scientific expedition to an uncharted island awakens titanic forces of nature, a mission of discovery becomes an explosive war between monster and man. Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly star in a thrilling and original new adventure that reveals the untold story of how Kong became King.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Creating A King: Realizing an Icon
- Creating A King: Summoning a God
- On Location: Vietnam
- Tom Hiddleston: The Intrepid Traveler
- Through the Lens: Brie Larson’s Photography
- Monarch Files 2.0
- Director Commentary
- Deleted Scenes
Resident Evil: Vendetta (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo, Blu/Digital HD & DVD)
Based on “Resident Evil™,” one of the bestselling video game franchises of all time, the film will also be released in select movie theaters nationwide June 19 for a special one-night event from Fathom Events, Park Circus and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions. Featuring the return of fan favorite characters Chris Redfield (Kevin Dorman) and Leon S. Kennedy (Matthew Mercer) as well as the film debut of Rebecca Chambers (Erin Cahill), RESIDENT EVIL: VENDETTA follows the trio as they aim to stop the spread of a deadly virus that threatens to destroy New York City.
Stalker (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray)
Andrei Tarkovsky’s final Soviet feature is a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic postapocalyptic landscape, and a rarefied cinematic experience like no other. A hired guide the Stalker leads a writer and a scientist into the heart of the Zone, the restricted site of a long-ago disaster, where the three men eventually zero in on the Room, a place rumored to fulfill one s most deeply held desires. Adapting a science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Tarkovsky created an immersive world with a wealth of material detail and a sense of organic atmosphere. A religious allegory, a reflection of contemporaneous political anxieties, a meditation on film itself Stalker envelops the viewer by opening up a multitude of possible meanings.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interview with Geoff Dyer, author of Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room
- Interview from 2002 with cinematographer Alexander Knyazhinsky
- Interview from 2002 with set designer Rashit Safiullin
- Interview from 2002 with composer Eduard Artemyev
- New English subtitle translation
- More!
- PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Le Fanu
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
Animosity (Pop Cinema, DVD)
Another Evil (MPI Home Video, Blu-ray & DVD)
The Expanse: Season Two (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu/Digital HD & DVD)
Lake Alice (Breaking Glass Pictures, DVD)
My Fair Zombie (Pop Cinema, DVD)
Stormy Monday: 2-Disc Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu/DVD Combo)
Suburban Psycho: 4 Horror Film Collection (Pop Cinema, DVD)
Transhuman (MTI Home Video, 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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