February 12th Blu-ray & DVD Releases Include HORROR EXPRESS, AUDITION, VALENTINE Collector’s Edition, THE POISON IVY COLLECTION

2019/02/12 02:22:20 +00:00 | Heather Wixson

Love is certainly in the air this week, especially with our horror and sci-fi home releases, as we have plenty of tainted love on tap for those of you who tend to enjoy the darker side of romance. Scream Factory is ready to put you in the mood with both the Collector’s Edition of Valentine and their Poison Ivy box set, and Arrow Video has assembled an impressive Special Edition of Audition (which, I think, technically counts as a love story) that fans are definitely going to want to pick up on Tuesday.

For those of you looking for some less romantically-inclined entertainment, Popcorn is getting the SteelBook treatment, and you can take a ride aboard the Horror Express as well. Other notable releases for February 12th include Possum, Killer Campout, Doom Room, Haunted Hospital: Heilstätten, Purgatory Road, and Nightflyers: Season One.

Audition: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)

One of the most shocking J-horror films ever made, Audition exploded onto the festival circuit at the turn of the century to a chorus of awards and praise. The film would catapult Takashi Miike to the international scene and pave the way for such other genre delights as Ichii the Killer and The Happiness of the Katakuris.

Recent widower Shigeharu Aoyama is advised by his son to find a new wife, so he seeks the advice of a colleague having been out of the dating scene for many years. They take advantage of their position in a film company by staging an audition to find the perfect woman. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu becomes enchanted by Asami, a quiet, 24-year-old woman, who is immediately responsive to his charms. But soon things take a very dark and twisted turn as we find that Asami isn’t what she seems to be...

Pulling the audience into a story that will lead to one of the most harrowing climaxes in cinema history, Miike twists and turns us through delirious editing and shocking visuals for one of the most depraved nightmares of all time!

Special Edition Contents:

Brand new 2K restoration of original vault elements
Original 5.1 Dolby Surround Audio
Optional English subtitles
Audio commentary with director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan
Brand new commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes examining the film and its source novel
Introduction by Miike
Ties that Bind: A brand new interview with Takashi Miike
Interviews with stars Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi
Damaged Romance: An appreciation by Japanese cinema historian Tony Rayns
Trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anton Bitel

Horror Express: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)

Horror royalty and Hammer alumni Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee reunite for this tale of mad monks, primitive humanoids and bloodthirsty zombies set aboard a train bound for Moscow – all aboard the Horror Express!

Renowned anthropologist Saxton (Lee) boards the Trans-Siberian Express with a crate containing the frozen remains of a primitive humanoid which, he believes, may prove to be the missing link in human evolution. But all hell breaks loose when the creature thaws out, turning out to be not quite as dead as once thought!

Directed by Spanish filmmaker Eugenio Martin, Horror Express remains one for the most thrilling (and, quite literally!) chilling horror efforts of the early 1970s.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original Uncompressed mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman
Introduction to the film by film journalist and Horror Express super-fan Chris Alexander
Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: an interview with director Eugenio Martin
Notes from the Blacklist: Horror Express producer Bernard Gordon on working in Hollywood during the McCarthy Era
Telly and Me: An interview with composer John Cacavas
Original Theatrical Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet with new writing by Adam Scovell

The Poison Ivy Collection (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

Tempestuous young Ivy (Drew Barrymore) befriends introverted teen Sylvie (Sara Gilbert) and seduces her way into the lives of Sylvie's wealthy family in Poison Ivy. In the piquant follow-up, Poison Ivy 2: Lily, a sheltered art student (Alyssa Milano) finds Ivy's diaries and, after reading them, is lured into uninhibited risk-taking to become a wild woman! Then Ivy's sister (Jaime Pressly) visits the Greer residence in Poison Ivy: The New Seduction, and it doesn't take long for her to use her skills of manipulation to throw the household into a slate of panic and deceit. A college freshman (Miriam McDonald) is invited to join an exclusive campus sisterhood, where cold blooded ambition causes the group to seduce, blackmail or do away with anyone that gets in their way in Poison Ivy: The Secret Society.

Bonus Features:

Poison Ivy

- Rated version of the film

- Unrated version (with standard definition inserts)

- NEW Audio Commentary with co-writer/director Katt Shea (theatrical version)

- Theatrical Trailer

Poison Ivy 2: Lily

- Rated version of the film

- Unrated version of the film (with standard definition inserts.)

- Trailer

Poison Ivy: The New Seduction

- Rated version of the film

- Unrated version of the film (with standard definition inserts.)

- Trailer

Poison Ivy: The Secret Society

- Unrated version

- Trailer

Popcorn: 2-Disc Steelbook Collector’s Edition (Synapse Films, Blu-ray)

What could be scarier than an all-night "Horrorthon"? A group of film students finds out when they stage just such an event at an abandoned movie palace. In addition to the three features - MOSQUITO, THE ATTACK OF THE AMAZING ELECTRIFIED MAN and THE STENCH - they decide to screen a bizarre short called THE POSSESSOR, whose creator, Lanyard Gates, killed his family and set the theater on fire after its first showing. Maggie (Jill Schoelen, THE STEPFATHER) has been having frightening dreams that seem to be connected to THE POSSESSOR, and as the festival proceeds, the nightmare comes true for her and her friends as they are stalked and slain by a mysterious killer. Has Gates survived to continue THE POSSESSOR's deadly legacy?

A loving homage to '50s/'60s B-movies (the trio of flicks shown at the Horrorthon all have accompanying William Castle-style gimmicks), POPCORN is also an insanely fun horror/comedy in its own right. Pseudonymously written by Alan Ormsby (CAT PEOPLE, DEATHDREAM), who directed the films-within-the-film, it celebrates the joys of old-fashioned creature features and '80s-style stalk-and-slay, with a great cast additionally including Dee Wallace Stone (THE HOWLING), Tony Roberts (AMITYVILLE 3-D), Ray Walston (THE STAND), Malcolm Danare (CHRISTINE) and Kelly Jo Minter (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5). Pop some popcorn of your own and settle in to watch this new high-definition transfer, which comes with a box full of bonus features!

Special Features:
- ALL REGION / PLAYABLE WORLDWIDE!
- SteelBook® collector's packaging
- Brand-New 2K Scan of a 35mm Interpositive Vault Element
- All-New Blu-ray 7.1 Surround Sound Mix Supervised by Synapse Films (Original 2.0 Stereo Mix also Included)
- 5.1 Surround Mix Included on DVD
- Audio Commentary with director Mark Herrier, stars Jill Schoelen, Malcolm Danare, and special makeup effects artist Mat Falls
- Midnight Madness: The Making of POPCORN, featuring interviews with director Mark Herrier, stars Jill Schoelen, Derek Rydall, Dee Wallace, Malcolm Danare, Ivette Soler, and Elliott Hurst, special makeup effects artist Mat Falls, composer Paul Zaza, and distributor executive Jonathan Wolf (55 mins, HD)
- Electric Memories - an interview with actor Bruce Glover
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Television Trailer and TV Spots
- Still Gallery
- Liner Notes from Michael Gingold
- English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
- New Collector's Edition Cover Design by Justin Osbourn/Slasher Design

Valentine: Collector’s Edition (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

Be my Valentine ... or else. Broken hearts and other mortal wounds await a cast of contemporary young stars when they play dating-scene veterans dying for love in this humor-laced, twist-filled thriller cleverly directed by Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend) and starring David Boreanaz (Angel, Bones), Denise Richards (Starship Troopers), Marley Shelton (Scream 4, Planet Terror), Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy) and more. Cards, candy and flowers are nice. But for fans of stalker-shocker terror, there's nothing like a Valentine.

Bonus Features:

- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements supervised and approved by director Jamie Blanks and director of photography Rick Bota

- NEW Audio Commentary with director Jamie Blanks and filmmaker Don Coscarelli, moderated by author Peter Bracke

- NEW Thrill of the Drill – an interview with actress Denise Richards\

- NEW The Final Girl – an interview with actress Marley Shelton

- NEW Shot Through the Heart – an interview with actress Jessica Cauffiel

- NEW Writing Valentine – an interview with co-writers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts

- NEW Editing Valentine - an interview with editor Steve Mirkovich

- NEW Scoring Valentine – an interview with composer Don Davis

- NEW Almost 2 hours of never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage from director Jamie Blanks’ personal archive

- Audio Commentary with director Jamie Blanks

- Vintage “Making of” featurette featuring cast and crew