Welcome back for another week of horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases, readers! January 16th features plenty of intriguing offerings, from cult classics to sequels of cult classics to even a few recent films as well. If you happened to miss Blade Runner 2049, Happy Death Day, or The Snowman in theaters, all three are making their way home this Tuesday. Severin Films has put together The Amicus Collection (which features Asylum, And Now The Screaming Starts and The Beast Must Die), and Scream Factory is giving Eye of the Cat the Blu-ray treatment as well.
Beyond Skyline is also coming to Blu on January 16th, and for all you Joe Dante fans out there, Shout Select has put together a Collector’s Edition release of Matinee that looks like it’s a must-have.
The Amicus Collection (Severin Films, Blu-ray)
Known as The Studio That Dripped Blood, the British film company Amicus Productions founded by American writer/producers Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky built a legacy of horror anthologies and twisted thrillers that remains among the very best genre movies of the 70s. In this trio of Amicus classics featuring stars that include Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Britt Ekland, Patrick Magee, Stephanie Beacham, Calvin Lockhart, Michael Gambon and Charlotte Rampling, you’ll discover the studio’s legendary portmanteau ASYLUM, their insane gothic shocker AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS, and exclusive to this set, the infamous werewolf whodunit THE BEAST MUST DIE, as well as a Bonus Disc of Amicus trailers, TV commercials, rare interviews and more – all in this 4-disc box set.
Special Features:
Disc 1:
- Two's A Company: 1972 On-set report from BBC featuring Interviews With Producer Milton Subotsky, Director Roy Ward Baker, Actors Charlotte Rampling, James Villiers, Megs Jenkins, Art Director Tony Curtis and Production Manager Teresa Bolland
- David J. Schow on Robert Bloch - Featurette
- Fiona Subotsky Remembers Milton Subotsky - Featurette
- Inside The Fear Factory Featurette with Directors Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis and Producer Max J. Rosenberg
- Audio Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and Camera Operator Neil Binney Theatrical Trailer
Disc 2:
- The Haunting Of Oakley Court - Featurette with Allan Bryce, Author of Amicus: The Friendly Face Of Fear, and David Flint, Author of Ten Years Of Terror, visit the classic horror film location
- Audio Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and Actress Stephanie Beacham
- Audio Commentary with Star Ian Ogilvy
- Archive Audio Interview with Actor Peter Cushing By Denis Meikle
- Horror Journalist Denis Meikle Recalls And Now The Screaming Starts - Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
- Radio Spot
Disc 3:
- And Then There Were Werewolves - Audio Essay By Horror Historian Troy Howarth
- Audio Commentary with Director Paul Annett
- Directing the Beast: Featurette with Director Paul Annett
- Theatrical Trailer
Disc 4:
- Audio Commentary With British Horror Film Writers Kim Newman & David Flint
Phil Nutman Audio Interview with Milton Subotsky - Audio Interview With Accompanying Stills / Posters
- Jonathan Sothcott Audio Interview with Max Rosenberg - Audio Interview With - ------- Accompanying Stills / Posters
- Bonus Amicus TV spots
Beyond Skyline (Lionsgate, Blu-ray)
When the population of Los Angeles is vacuumed off the face of the Earth, Detective Mark Corley storms his way onto an alien ship to rescue his estranged son. But after crashing the ship in Southeast Asia, he must forge an alliance with a band of survivors to discover the key to saving his son and taking back the planet once and for all.
Blade Runner 2049 (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu/Digital Combo, 3D Blu/Blu/Digital Combo & Blu/DVD/Digital Combo)
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Designing The World of Blade Runner 2049
- To Be Human: Casting Blade Runner 2049
- PROLOGUES: 2022: Black Out
- PROLOGUES: 2036: Nexus Dawn - PROLOGUES: 2048: Nowhere to Run
- Blade Runner 101: Blade Runners
- Blade Runner 101: The Replicant Evolution
- Blade Runner 101: The Rise of Wallace Corp
- Blade Runner 101: Welcome to 2049
- Blade Runner 101: Welcome to 2049
- Blade Runner 101: Within the Skies: Spinners, Pilotfish and Barracudas
Eye of the Cat (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
From the screenwriter of Psycho comes another terrifying tale of horror!
Wylie (Michael Sarrazin, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud) and Kassia (Gayle Hunnicutt, The Legend of Hell House) are looking for a way to get their hands on the hefty inheritance of Wylie's cat-loving, wealthy Aunt Danny (Eleanor Parker, The Sound of Music). But there is one little problem: Wylie suffers from a severe case of ailurophobia – the fear of cats. In order for their plot to succeed, the pair must first eliminate Aunt Danny's legions of feline companions ... which ends up being much more difficult than expected.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- NEW HD Film Transfer Taken From Original Film Elements
- Television Version Of The Film (Standard Definition)
- Original Radio Spot
- Theatrical Trailer
- Still Gallery
Happy Death Day (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu/DVD/Digital Combo & DVD/Digital)
Blumhouse (Split, Get Out, Whiplash) produces this original and inventive rewinding thriller in which a blissfully self-centered co-ed (Jessica Rothe, La La Land) is doomed to relive the day of her murder unless she can identify her masked assailant and hopefully stop the madness. If she can’t, she will be stuck in an insane loop, reliving a ghoulish nightmare that has become her death day.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Matinee: Collector’s Edition (Shout Select, Blu-ray)
John Goodman is at his uproarious best as the William Castle-inspired movie promoter Lawrence Woolsey, who brings his unique brand of flashy showmanship to the unsuspecting residents of Key West, Florida.
It's 1962, and fifteen-year-old fan Gene Loomis (Simone Fenton) can't wait for the arrival of Woolsey, who is in town to promote his latest offering of atomic power gone berserk, Mant! But the absurd vision of Woolsey's tale takes on a sudden urgency as the Cuban Missile Crises places the real threat of atomic horror just 90 miles off the coast. With the help of Woolsey's leading lady, Ruth (Cathy Moriarty), the master showman gives Key West a premiere they'll never forget. Anything can happen in the movies, and everything does in this hilarious tribute to a more innocent (and outrageous) time in American cinema.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- NEW "Master of the Matinee" – interview with director Joe Dante
- NEW "The Leading Lady" – an interview with Cathy Moriarty
- NEW "MANTastic!" The Making of a Mant
- NEW "Out of the Bunker" – an interview with actress Lisa Jakub
- NEW "Making a Monster Theatre" – an interview with production designer Steven Legler
- NEW "The Monster Mix" - an interview with editor Marshall Harvey
- NEW "Lights! Camera! Reunion!" – an interview with director of photography John Hora
- "Paranoia in Ant Vision" – Joe Dante discusses the making of the film
- MANT! – The full length version of the film with introduction by Joe Dante
- Vintage Making of Featurette
- Behind the Scenes footage courtesy of Joe Dante
- Deleted and extended scenes sourced from Joe Dante’s Workprint
- Still Galleries
- Theatrical Trailer
The Snowman (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu/DVD/Digital Combo & DVD/Digital)
From executive producer Martin Scorsese, The Snowman is based on Jo Nesbø's New York Times bestselling thriller series. When an elite crime squad's lead detective (Michael Fassbender) investigates the disappearance of a victim on the first snow of winter, he fears an elusive serial killer may be active again. With the help of a brilliant recruit (Rebecca Ferguson), the cop must connect decades-old cold cases to the brutal new one if he hopes to outwit this unthinkable evil before the next snowfall.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
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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