February’s horror and sci-fi home media titles are coming to a close this week, but before we can bid adieu to the month, there are a bounty of cult classics (and a few notable new films) coming our way on Tuesday that fans should definitely keep an eye out for. Arrow Video is keeping busy with a pair of limited edition Blu-rays for Scalpel and Frank Henenlotter’s original Basket Case, and Tibor Takacs’ Gate II is being resurrected in HD via the fine folks at Scream Factory.
Vinegar Syndrome has put together a limited edition Blu for Prey, and Michele Soavi’s The Sect comes home this week too, courtesy of Scorpion Releasing. Other notable releases for February 27th include 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (which is an excellent documentary on Psycho’s most memorable moment), Serpent’s Lair, Hangman, The Brainiac, Colossus: The Forbin Project, Lost Creek, and the 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express.
78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (Scream Factory, Blu/DVD Combo)
The screeching strings, the plunging knife, the slow zoom out from a lifeless eyeball: in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho changed film history forever with its taboo-shattering shower scene. With 78 camera set-ups and 52 edits over the course of 3 minutes, Psycho redefined screen violence, set the stage for decades of slasher films to come, and introduced a new element of danger to the movie-going experience. Aided by a roster of filmmakers, critics, and fans (including Guillermo del Toro, Bret Easton Ellis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Eli Roth, Danny Elfman, and Peter Bogdanovich) director Alexandre O. Philippe pulls back the curtain on the making and influence of this cinematic game-changer, breaking it down frame by frame and unpacking Hitchcock’s dense web of allusions and double meanings. The result is an enthralling piece of cinematic detective work that’s pure nirvana for film buffs.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Extended Interview With Walter Murch
- Extended Interview With Guillermo Del Toro
- “Stabbing Melons” With Director Alexandre O. Philippe
- Theatrical Trailer
Basket Case: Limited Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)
THE TENANT IN ROOM 7 IS VERY SMALL, VERY TWISTED, AND VERY MAD.
The feature debut of director Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage, Frankenhooker), 1982's Basket Case is perhaps his most revered - a riotous and blood-spattered midnight movie experience, now immortalized in a lavish new 4K restoration by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Duane Bradley is a pretty ordinary guy. His formerly conjoined twin Belial, on the other hand, is a deformed, fleshy lump whom he carries around in a wicker basket. Arriving in the Big Apple and taking up a room at the seedy Hotel Broslin, the pair set about hunting down and butchering the surgeons responsible for their separation. But tensions flare up when Duane starts spending time with a pretty blonde secretary, and Belial's homicidal tendencies reach bloody new extremes.
Filmed on a shoestring budget against the backdrop of 1980s New York (where the movie would become a staple of the infamous 42nd Street grindhouse circuit), Basket Case has clawed its way from its humble origins to become one of the most celebrated cult movies of all time.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
Gate II (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Not all minions are cute and cuddly …
This supercharged sequel to the horror classic The Gate comes alive with unearthly creatures, heart-stopping action and incredible special effects.
Gate II picks up again with Terry, the teenage sorcerer who summons beings from the other side whose powers can be used to grant any wish. Unfortunately, before the Gate closes again, a minion (a tiny disciple of Satan himself) manages to slip through to our dimension. When the creature is kidnapped, all hell breaks loose.
Scalpel: Limited Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)
HE LOST THE FACE OF THE WOMAN HE LOVED… SO HE GAVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE.
US television staple Robert Lansing (Star Trek, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone) stars as a deranged surgeon in this twisty-turny psychological thriller from Blood Rage director John Grissmer.
In Scalpel, Lansing plays Dr. Phillip Reynolds, a man whose daughter Heather (Judith Chapman, As the World Turns, General Hospital) has run away from home a year prior following the suspicious death of her boyfriend. When he happens across a young woman one night, her face beaten beyond recognition, the unhinged Reynolds sees this as an opportunity to put his trusty scalpel to use - hatching a plan to ''reconstruct'' her face in the image of his missing daughter, and so claim her sizeable inheritance.
Photographed by celebrated cinematographer Edward Lachman, who would go on to serve as DP on the likes of Erin Brockovich and The Virgin Suicides, Scalpel is an exemplary slice of Southern-fried gothic, filled finally rescued from VHS obscurity in this revelatory new Blu-ray edition from Arrow Video.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
Prey: Limited Edition (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu/DVD Combo)
An alien craft carrying a being with fox-like features has landed in the middle of rural England. After brutally murdering a young couple, the being animates himself into the body of the man he killed, adopting the name Anders. Upon being discovered by a reclusive lesbian couple, who mistake him for an injured drifter, they invite him to recover in their isolated home, unaware of his innate bloodlust...
While ostensibly a science fiction film, Norman J. Warren's PREY is a brooding study in sexual desire and loneliness, punctuated by shocking violence and suspense. Equal parts bloody and erotic, Vinegar Syndrome presents this masterpiece of British horror on Blu-ray, in a brand new, director approved restoration from its 35mm negative, and fully uncut for the first time since its 80s VHS release.
Bonus Features:
1. Newly scanned and restored in 2k from 35mm negative
2. Commentary track with: Norman J. Warren (director) and Sally Faulkner (actress)
3. "Directing the Prey" - interview with Norman J. Warren
4. "Becoming the Prey" - interview with Sally Faulkner
5. "Producing the Prey" - interview with Terry Marcel (producer)
6. Original theatrical trailer
7. Reversible cover artwork
8. English SDH subtitles
The Sect (Scorpion Releasing, Blu-ray)
There’s fear around every corner with a diabolical sect on the loose! Kelly Lee Curtis (sister of Jamie Lee) stars as Miriam, an American schoolteacher relocated to Germany in an area plagued by a satanic cult that murders and tears out the hearts of anyone who betrays it. One afternoon, Miriam accidentally hits an elderly pedestrian, Moebius (Herbert Lom, The Pink Panther, The Dead Zone), standing in the middle of the road; alarmed, she takes him back to her house to recuperate, only for him to secretly drug her and then secrete a hallucinogenic insect in her nostril. Clearly targeting Miriam for a sinister plan, Moebius triggers an uncanny string of events in Miriam’s life involving nightmares, a diabolical cult leader, Damon (The Church's Tomas Arana), her magic pet rabbit, and a dark well filled with mystical water. Directed by Michele Soavi (The Church, Stagefright) and produced by maestro Dario Argento (Suspiria, Opera), this hallucinatory shocker now merges from the darkness with a new HD transfer!
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
The Brainiac (Cheezy Movies, DVD)
Colossus: The Forbin Project (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Hangman (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)
Lost Creek (Gravitas Ventures, Blu-ray & DVD)
Murder on the Orient Express (2017) (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo, Blu/DVD Combo &DVD)
The Neighbor (Lionsgate, DVD)
Serpent’s Lair (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray)
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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