After a quiet week of home media releases, April 23rd comes roaring back with a cavalcade of new titles hitting Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday, including the 40th Anniversary 4K Edition of Alien, just in time for Alien Day on April 26th. Escape Room is also hitting multiple formats this week, and for those of you who dig on cult horror, we have two great films featuring some of the genre’s biggest talents being celebrated by Kino Lorber: The Strange Door and Scream and Scream Again.
Arrow Video has put together a Special Edition release of Scared Stiff that comes home on Tuesday, and for those of you who enjoy folk horror, be sure to check out Hagazussa when it hits both Blu and DVD.
Other notable releases for April 23rd include the 4K release of The Witch, I Spit On Your Grave: Déjà Vu, Destroyer, Backyard Epics, and 1st Summoning.
Alien: 40th Anniversary 4K Edition (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo)
In the film that birthed the wildly successful ALIEN franchise, the crew of the deep space tug Nostromo awaken from stasis during a voyage home to Earth when their ship’s computer detects what is believed to be an alien distress signal coming from the desolate nearby moon, LV-426. While investigating, one of the crew, Kane (John Hurt), is attacked by an alien creature that latches to his face and he is rushed back to the Nostromo to receive medical treatment. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the ship’s warrant officer, advises against Kane’s return due to quarantine regulations - but her orders are ignored by Ash (Ian Holm), bringing the Nostromo under threat from a mysterious, extraterrestrial apex predator with violent and lethal survival instincts.
The film was restored in 4K in 2018 by 20th Century Fox at Company 3/Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, supervised by Ridley Scott and Pam Dery, with the 4K scans were done at EFilm.
Bonus Features:
- 1979 Theatrical Version
- 2003 Director’s Cut
- 2003 Audio Commentary by Ridley Scott and the Cast & Crew
- 1999 Audio Commentary by Ridley Scott (1979 Theatrical Version Only)
- Final Theatrical Isolated Score – Dolby Digital 5.1 (1979 Theatrical Version Only)
- Composer’s Original Isolated Score – Dolby Digital 5.1 (1979 Theatrical Version Only)
- Deleted Scenes
Escape Room (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Blu/DVD Combo & DVD)
An intriguing invitation brings six strangers together. Initially, they think they have gathered for a highly immersive escape room, but they soon make the sickening discovery that they are pawns in a sadistic game of life and death. Together, they move from one terrifying scenario to the next as they find clues and solve puzzles. But the players soon learn that exposing their darkest secrets may hold the key to survive.
Hagazussa (Doppelganger Releasing, Blu-ray & DVD)
In a remote Alpine village in the 15th century, the orphan Albrun grows up to become a marked woman. The scapegoat of ancient superstitions and monstrous misogyny, this self-styled witch begins to assert her otherworldly birthright. The plague she conjures makes human cruelty look pathetic and small by comparison. This atmospheric debut feature from Lukas Feigelfeld is a haunting pagan death trip and a startling vision of psychedelic horror.
Scared Stiff: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)
TV star Mary Page Keller (Pretty Little Liars) appears alongside Andrew Stevens (10 to Midnight, The Fury) as a couple terrorized by an age-old curse in this much-underrated late-80s offering from director Richard Friedman.
Keller plays Kate Christopher, a singer who moves into an old colonial mansion with her son and psychologist boyfriend David (Stevens). But when they make a strange and gruesome discovery in the boarded-up attic, it soon becomes clear that the mansion carries with it a dark and blood-stained past and one that is about to terrorize them in the present.
The second feature helmed by Richard Friedman, who went on to direct such genre favourites as Doom Asylum and Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge, Scared Stiff (AKA The Masterson Curse) builds to an astonishing practical FX-laden climax sure to please fans of 80s horror.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully illustrated collector’s booklet with new writing on the film by James Oliver
Scream and Scream Again: Special Edition (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray & DVD)
A serial killer who drains his victims' blood is on the loose in London! They hunger for power, thirst for blood—and make each helpless, pleading victim Scream and Scream Again! Horror legends Vincent Price (Tales of Terror), Christopher Lee (House of the Long Shadows) and Peter Cushing (Madhouse) star in this masterwork of style and suspense about a group of sadistic madmen plotting to take over the world—one severed body part at a time. Directed by cult filmmaker Gordon Hessler (The Oblong Box) with a screenplay by Christopher Wicking (Cry of the Banshee) and based on a novel by Peter Saxon (Murder at Site 3). Co-starring Judy Huxtable (The Psychopath). This special edition includes both the original UK and American cuts.
Special Features:
NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Tim Lucas
-Includes both the U.S. and UK cuts
-TRAILERS FROM HELL with Mick Garris
-3 Radio Spots
-Theatrical Trailer
-Vincent Price Trailers
The Strange Door (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray & DVD)
Screen legends Charles Laughton (Witness for the Prosecution) and Boris Karloff (Black Sabbath) haunt the dungeons of a medieval château in this horrific adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) story. Laughton, the Sire de Maletroit, is an evil French nobleman, so obsessed with hatred of his own brother (Paul Cavanagh, A Bill of Divorcement) that he imprisons him in the castle dungeon. The Sire also tries to destroy the life of his brother’s daughter (Sally Forrest, Not Wanted) by forcing her to marry a rogue (Richard Stapley, The Girl from Rio), but his plans are upset when they fall in love. Aided by Voltan (Karloff), an abused servant, the lovers attempt to escape, but the Sire imprisons them in a cell with closing walls that may spell violent deaths for the young lovers. Directed by Joseph Pevney (Female on the Beach).
Special Features:
-NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historians Tom Weaver, David Schecter and Dr. Robert J. Kiss
-Trailers
Also Available This Week:
1st Summoning (Gravitas Ventures, Blu-ray & DVD)
Backyard Epics – Movie Trailers from the Underground (SRS Cinema, Blu-ray)
Book of the Dead (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
Destroyer (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Blu/DVD Combo & DVD)
Growing Up With I Spit On Your Grave (Deja Vu, DVD)
I Spit On Your Grave: Déjà Vu (Deja Vu, Blu-ray & DVD)
Strangers at the Door (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
Strawberry Estates (SRS Cinema, Blu-ray)
The Witch 4K (Lionsgate, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo)
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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