Happy Tuesday the 13th, everyone! While it may not be nearly as a good as getting to enjoy a Friday the 13th, genre fans still have a few good reasons to get excited, as there are some killer movies headed to both Blu-ray and DVD this week.
As far as new titles go, both The Meg and Lasso are hitting multiple formats on Tuesday, and cult film fans are going to want to grab The Blood Island Collection from Severin Films (all three films inside the set are being released separately on Blu-ray as well). Herschell Gordon Lewis’ The Wizard of Gore is getting the special edition treatment from the fine folks at Arrow Video, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula comes home this Tuesday, courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection.
Other notable releases for November 13th include Perversion Story, Bloodlust, House of Forbidden Secrets, 10/21, Alpha Wolf,and Teenage Zombies.
The Blood Island Collection (Severin Films, Blu/CD Combo)
They've been called "defiantly lurid" (1000MisspentHours.com), "delightfully depraved" (FlickAttack.com) and "blood-soaked and naked broad-filled" (MrSkin.com). Their cult of fans are worldwide. And for more than fifty years, these four monster shockers from Filipino directors Gerry de Leon and Eddie Romero have stunned drive-in, grindhouse and VHS audiences, became the foundation of infamous exploitation distributors Hemisphere Pictures and Independent-International, and remain among the most insane/esteemed classics in horror history. Severin Films is now proud to present The BLOOD ISLAND Trilogy and its celebrated prequel, all featuring uncut scans from recently discovered film elements and oozing with all-new Special Features!
THE BLOOD ISLAND COLLECTION is a limited, numbered edition release of only 3500 units.
Special Features:
Disc 1 - BRIDES OF BLOOD:
Audio Commentary with Hemisphere Marketing Consultant Samuel M. Sherman.
Jungle Fury: Archival Interview with Co-Director Eddie Romero.
Here Comes the Bride: Interview with Hemisphere Marketing Consultant Samuel M. Sherman.
Beverly Hills on Blood Island: Interview with Actress Beverly Powers a.k.a. Beverly Hills.
Alternate BRIDES OF BLOOD ISLAND title sequence and JUNGLE FURY title card.
Teaser Trailer.
Trailer.
Poster & Still Gallery.
Disc 2 - MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND:
Audio Commentary with Horror Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Berger.
Audio Commentary with Hemisphere Marketing Consultant Samuel M. Sherman.
Tombs of the Living Dead: Interview with Pete Tombs, Co-Author of "Immoral Tales."
A Taste of Blood: Interview with Critic Mark Holcomb.
The Mad Director of Blood Island: Archival Interview with Co-Director Eddie Romero.
Trailer.
Poster & Still Gallery.
Disc 3 - BEAST OF BLOOD: *BOX SET EXCLUSIVE!*
Audio Commentary with Hemisphere Marketing Consultant Samuel M. Sherman.
Celeste and The Beast: An Interview with Celeste Yarnall.
Dr. Lorca's Blood Devils: Interview with Actor Eddie Garcia.
Super 8 Digest Version.
Trailer.
Radio Spot.
Poster and Stills Gallery.
Disc 4 - TERROR IS A MAN:
Man Becomes Creature: Interview with Hemisphere Marketing Consultant Samuel M. Sherman.
Dawn of Blood Island: Interview with Co-Director Eddie Romero.
Terror Creature: Interview with Pete Tombs, Co-Author of "Immoral Tales."
When The Bell Rings: Interview with Critic Mark Holcomb.
Trailer.
Poster & Still Gallery.
CD Bonus Disc: *BOX SET EXCLUSIVE!*
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
Lasso (Epic Pictures, Blu-ray & DVD)
A tour group outing turns deadly when the crazed, bloodthirsty cowboys from a local rodeo attraction start abducting and killing people!
The Meg (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo, Blu/DVD Combo & DVD)
A deep-sea submersible filled with an international research crew lies disabled at the bottom of the Pacific after having been attacked by a massive shark previously thought to be extinct. With time running out, expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao) to save the crew—and the ocean itself—from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. What no one could have imagined is that years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now he must risk his own life to save everyone trapped below...bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time!
Perversion Story (Mondo Macabro, Blu-ray)
Dr. George Dumurrier is looking for money to expand the San Francisco based clinic he runs with his brother. He is also having an affair with Jane, a glamorous fashion photographer. When Dumurrier's wife Susan dies following an asthma attack, leaving him a million dollar insurance pay-out, it seems that all his problems are solved - until an anonymous phone call sends him to the Roaring 20s strip club where he is astonished to discover that its featured performer, the dangerously desirable Monica Weston, looks exactly like his dead wife. As he tries to unravel this mystery, George learns that the police are now investigating his wife's death and that he is under suspicion of murder.
Masterfully directed by Lucio Fulci, PREVERSION STORY just predates LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN and is equally compelling, mysterious and seductive. This fully restored Blu-ray release is the longest version available.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
HD transfer from original negative
Full extended European version
Interview with star Jean Sorel
Interview with star Elsa Martinelli
Interview with writer Stephen Thrower
Original artwork by Justin Coffee
English/Italian language choice
Original trailer
Mondo Macabro previews
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray)
A dying man’s report of a ritual black mass stirs Britain’s security chief into action, and a mansion filled with young vampire girls is soon discovered. And this is but the first twist in a labyrinth of horror. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee pair up for the final Hammer Dracula in this follow-up to Dracula A.D. 1972. In this go-round, the Count (Christopher Lee, naturally) follows a more pulpish, super-villainous playbook, posing as a millionaire industrialist alive and well and living in London while secretly brewing up a batch of super-plague in a quest to destroy the world. Mixing Satanists, spies and sci-fi, the film makes viewers glad that Peter Cushing is on hand to solidly anchor the more outré elements as the effortlessly expositioning Dr. Van Helsing. Lee, in turn, has more dialogue as Dracula than was the norm, and rachets up the evil to the nth degree. Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) costars. Also known as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride.
The Wizard of Gore: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)
From the crazed madman of the macabre, late splatter movie pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs!), comes his most fiendish feat of terrifying onscreen trickery yet - behold, The Wizard of Gore! You've all seen the trick in which the magician saws his glamorous assistant in half - but what about the spike through the brain gag? Or the good old smashing punch-press?
Montag the Magnificent's blood-curdling onstage performances shock and dazzle his audiences in equal measure. But when his participants start winding up dead, local TV talk show hostess Sherry Carson suspects his gruesome act may be more sinister than it first seems... Featuring some of the most notorious gory set pieces in all of director H.G. Lewis' blood-soaked career, The Wizard of Gore is a stomach-churning, Grand Guignol production that's less sleight of hand and more slice of hand!!!
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
10/31 (Scream Team Releasing, Blu-ray & DVD)
Alpha Wolf (Gravitas Ventures, Blu-ray & DVD)
Bloodlust (Mondo Macabro, Blu-ray)
Brides of Blood (Severin Films, Blu-ray & DVD)
House of Forbidden Secrets (Unearthed Films, Blu-ray & DVD)
Mad Doctor of Blood Island (Severin Films, Blu-ray & DVD)
Mrs. Claus (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
Once Upon a Midnight Dreary (Mystic Night Pictures, Blu-ray)
Once Upon a Midnight Dreary II (Mystic Night Pictures, Blu-ray)
Teenage Zombies (IMD Films, DVD)
Terror is a Man (Severin Films, Blu-ray & 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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