Not that there’s been a bad week of home entertainment releases this year, but March 26th is looking to be one of our finest days of 2019 so far, with Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary adaptation leading the pack as it gets the 4K treatment on Tuesday. Vinegar Syndrome is keeping themselves incredibly busy this week, too, as they have four different cult titles on tap for horror fans to add to their Blu-ray collections: The Children, The Suckling, Dominique, and In the Cold of the Night.
Also this week, Scream Factory is showing some love to The Body Snatcher, which features Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff teaming up with Val Lewton, as well as Warning Sign, and for those of you who dig creature features with a side of creepy-crawliness, Kingdom of the Spiders comes home as well.
Other releases for March 26th include Aquaman, Midnight, Texas: Season Two, The Vault, The Graveyard, and Zoombies 2.
The Body Snatcher (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
A literary classic becomes a horror classic at the hands of masters Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Val Lewton! Screen icon Boris Karloff plays the title role in the Val Lewton adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher, directed with subtle calculation by versatile Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Sound of Music). A doctor (Henry Daniell, The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake) needs cadavers for medical studies and Karloff is willing to provide them ... one way or another. The film also features a wonderful supporting performance by fellow horror icon Bela Lugosi.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- NEW 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
- NEW You’ll Never Get Rid Of Me: Resurrecting THE BODY SNATCHER Featurette
- Audio Commentary With Director Robert Wise And Writer/Film Historian Steve Haberman
- Documentary – Shadows In The Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
- Still Galleries – Posters, Lobby Cards, Movie Stills
The Children (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu/DVD Combo)
Something is terrifyingly wrong with the children of Ravenback. After their school bus passes through a mysterious cloud of yellow smoke, the children are transformed into bloodthirsty zombies with black fingernails, which burn anything they touch. As parents and unwitting townspeople are burned to a crisp, the local police force frantically searches for the missing kids, unaware of their new and deadly powers...
Shot back-to-back with FRIDAY THE 13TH, and sharing some of the same crew, Max Kalmanowicz's THE CHILDREN is an outrageous and fun drive-in horror classic. Featuring an eerie score from Harry Manfredini (FRIDAY THE 13TH) and produced by Carlton J. Albright (LUTHER THE GEEK), Vinegar Syndrome brings THE CHILDREN to Blu-ray, newly restored from the best surviving film elements and in its extended director's cut!
Bonus Features:
1. Region Free Blu-ray/DVD combo
2. Newly scanned & restored in 2k from a combination of its 35mm original camera negative and best surviving theatrical prints
3. New audio commentary with director Max Kalmanowicz
4. Archival audio commentary with producer/co-writer Carlton J. Albright
5. "Childhood Memories: Making the Children" - a new interview with Carlton J. Albright & production manager David Platt
6. "Return to Ravensback" - a newly produced locations then-and-now featurette
7. "The Lost Scene" - audio from a lost scene of The Children
8. Archival video interview with Carlton J. Albright
9. "Memories of The Children" - archival featurette with: Carlton J. Albright, Patricia Albright & Gil Rogers
10. "Making The Children" - archival featurette with: Carlton J. Albright & David Platt
11. "The Children: The Musical" - archival interview with Stan Richardson, co-creator of the musical rendition of The Children
12. Reversible cover artwork
13. English SDH subtitles
Dominique (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu/DVD Combo)
Wealthy Dominique Ballard (Jean Simmons; Spartacus) lives with her husband David (Cliff Robertson; Obsession, Man on a Swing) in Dominique's giant English estate. Emotionally fragile, Dominique is harassed, tormented, and eventually driven mad by David until one night she hangs herself, resulting in her entire fortune being left to her husband. But what at first seems like a clever inheritance scheme soon becomes a waking nightmare for David as Dominique's spirit is not at rest and has instead risen from the grave to haunt him and avenge her death. But is the evil presence that appears to be seeking vengeance from the afterlife actually David's dearly departed wife or is someone else attempting their own elaborate and deadly hoax?
A suspenseful supernatural thriller from Michael Anderson (Logan's Run), DOMINIQUE (also known as Dominique is Dead) co-stars Jenny Agutter (Walkabout) and Judy Geeson (10 Rillington Place). Sumptuously photographed by Oscar winner Ted Moore (A Man For All Seasons, Goldfinger), Vinegar Syndrome brings DOMINIQUE to Blu-ray for the first time in an all new 2k restoration.
Bonus Features:
1. Region Free Blu-ray/DVD combo
2. Newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 35mm negative
3. Audio interview with actor Michael Jayston
4. Audio interview with assistant director Brian Cook
5. Original theatrical trailer
6. Reversible cover artwork
7. English SDH subtitles
Kingdom of the Spiders (Kino Lorber/Code Red, Blu-ray)
Television legend William Shatner (TV’s Star Trek, T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal) stars as vet "Rack" Hansen in this cult classic about an Arizona town infested with a horde of arachnids that turn on the humans. After livestock belonging to Rack's friend Walter Colby (Woody Strode, The Italian connection. The Ravagers, The Professionals) Fall victim to a spider attack, entomologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling, Wild Party) arrives and tries to help Rack deal with the crisis. But with the big county fast approaching, Mayor Connors (Roy Engel, The Man from Planet X) refuses to let them quarantine the Colby's ranch. Soon the remaining residents of the town must barricade themselves to stave off the eight-legged invaders in the ultimate man vs. arachnid showdown! Directed by cult filmmaker Roy ‘Bud’ Cardos (The Dark, Mutant, Outlaw of Gor).
Special Features:
- Audio commentary with director John 'Bud' Cardos, producer Igo Kantor and star Tiffany Bolling
- Interview with Tiffany Bolling
- Theatrical Trailer
Pet Sematary (1989) (Paramount, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo)
The terrifying tale by Stephen King is also a beloved adaptation of the best-selling author’s work. Newly remastered in 4K for its 30th Anniversary, Pet Sematary, follows the tragic story of the Creed family. After their cat is accidentally killed, a friendly neighbor advises its burial in a mysterious nearby cemetery. When the cat comes back, it’s only the beginning of an unthinkable evil leading to hell and back. Sometimes, so it seems, dead is better.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Suckling (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu/DVD Combo)
After being tricked into having an abortion at Big Mama's underground abortion clinic / brothel, a young woman's extracted fetus is flushed into the sewer system wherein it's exposed to toxic waste and begins to mutate into an ever growing and increasingly bloodthirsty monster. The girls, johns, and other assorted weirdos find themselves trapped inside the brothel where they are forced to face off against the agitated, prenatal creature, as well as each other, in a high stakes quest to stay alive, or at least in one piece.
An offbeat and gleefully violent monster horror-comedy from one time director Francis Teri, THE SUCKLING blends gratuitous gore, nonchalant T&A, and a sly side helping of social commentary, resulting in a distinctive 80s horror indie gem. Vinegar Syndrome presents this direct-to-video favorite on Blu-ray in the US for the first time, in a brand new 2k restoration made from its original 16mm camera negative.
Bonus Features:
1. Region Free Blu-ray/DVD combo
2. Newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 16mm original camera negative
3. Video interview with writer/director Francis Teri
4. Video interview with actor Michael Gingold
5. Archival image gallery
6. Reversible cover artwork
7. English SDH subtitles
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
Aquaman (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo, 3D Blu/Blu Combo, Blu/Digital & DVD)
The Graveyard (Cheezy Flicks, DVD)
In the Cold of the Night (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu/DVD Combo)
Midnight, Texas: Season Two (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)
The Vault (Filmrise, Blu-ray & DVD)
Warning Sign (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Zoombies 2 (The Asylum, 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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