February’s home media releases are an exceptional bunch, led by Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep adaptation, which is headed to a variety of formats, including 4K Ultra HD. In terms of other recent genre titles making their way to Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday, horror fans will undoubtedly want to add Rabid (2019), Daniel Isn’t Real, The House That Jack Built, and Mon Mon Mon Monsters! to their collections as well.

We also have a few older titles that are making their way to Blu this week, including Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage and Evil Ed, and if you somehow don’t already own them, both the original Halloween and Halloween (2018) are being released on Blu as a double feature from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Other notable home media titles arriving on February 4th include The Nightingale, Perfect, Ouija Room, Restricted Access, and 10/31 Part II.

Brain Damage: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)

Meet Elmer. He’s your friendly neighborhood parasite with the ability to induce euphoric hallucinations in his hosts. But these LSD-like trips come with a hefty price tag: when young Brian comes under Elmer’s addictive spell, it’s not long before he finds himself scouring the city streets in search of his parasite friend’s preferred food source brains! 

Featuring late TV horror host John Zacherle as the voice of Elmer, Brain Damage boasts some of the most astonishingly bad taste gore gags ever realized, including the notorious brain-pulling sequence and a xxxx-job that ends with a distinctly unconventional climax.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
  • Original Mono and 5.1 DTS-HD MA Surround Audio Options
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Isolated Score
  • Audio commentary by writer-director Frank Henenlotter
  • Listen to the Light: The Making of Brain Damage documentary featuring interviews with actor Rick Herbst, producer Edgar Ievins, editor James Kwei, first assistant director Gregory Lamberson, visual effects supervisor Al Magliochetti and makeup artist Dan Frye
  • The Effects of Brain Damage FX artist and creator of Elmer Gabe Bartalos looks back at his iconic effects work on the film
  • Animating Elmer featurette looking at the contributions of visual effects supervisor Al Magliochetti
  • Karen Ogle: A Look Back stills photographer, script supervisor and assistant editor Karen Ogle recalls her fond memories of working on Brain Damage
  • Elmer’s Turf: The NYC Locations of Brain Damage featurette revisiting the film s original shooting locations
  • Tasty Memories: A Brain Damage Obsession an interview with superfan Adam Skinner
  • Brain Damage Q&A with Frank Henenlotter recorded at the 2016 Offscreen Film Festival
  • Image Galleries
  • Original Theatrical Trailer
  • Bygone Behemoth animated short by Harry Chaskin, featuring a brief appearance by John Zacherle in his final onscreen credit
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck

Daniel Isn’t Real (Samuel Goldwyn Films, DVD)

Troubled college freshman Luke (Miles Robbins) suffers a violent family trauma and resurrects his childhood imaginary friend Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger) to help him cope. Charismatic and full of manic energy, Daniel helps Luke to achieve his dreams, before pushing him to the very edge of sanity and into a desperate struggle for control of his mind -- and his soul.

Doctor Sleep (Warner Bros., 4K Ultra HD/Blu/Digital, Blu/Digital & DVD)

“Doctor Sleep” continues the story of Danny Torrance, 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson and newcomer Kyliegh Curran star in the supernatural thriller, directed by Mike Flanagan, from his own screenplay based upon the novel by Stephen King.

Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the “shine.” Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.

Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra’s innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before—at once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.

The House That Jack Built (Scream Factory, Blu-ray & DVD)

In five audacious episodes, failed architect and arch-sociopath Jack recounts the elaborately orchestrated murders—each, as he views them, a towering work of art—that define his "career" as a serial killer. Mixing pitch black humor, transcendent surrealism, and renegade musings on everything from history to architecture to cinema, von Trier fashions a radical, blazingly personal inquiry into violence, art, and the twin acts of creation and destruction.

Mon Mon Mon Monsters! (RLJE Films, Blu-ray & DVD)

A bullied boy and his tormentors discover a creature while doing school-mandated community service. Claiming her for their own, the group of kids keep the creature captive, revealing the monster within themselves as her ferocious sister scours the city in search of her missing sibling. 

Rabid (2019) (Scream Factory, Blu-ray & DVD)

A gruesome accident ... an experimental treatment ... an unstoppable nightmare. Jen and Sylvia Soska bring you a terrifying new take on the legendary David Cronenberg's Rabid. Demure and unassuming fashion designer Sarah (Laura Vandervoort, Jigsaw), horribly disfigured after a grisly collision, agrees to undergo an untested procedure involving stem cells to restore her damaged face. This miracle cure causes her to recover beyond her wildest imagination: Sarah now looks as beautiful as the models she works with. But as her confidence – and her sexual appetite – grows, it comes with a price: Sarah is now the carrier of a contagion that causes her lovers to become violent spreaders of death. As the disease spirals out of control, time is running out in the race to find a cure.

ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:

10/31 Part II (Scream Team Releasing, Blu-ray)

Evil Ed: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray) 

The Girl in the Crawlspace (Mill Creek Entertainment, DVD)

Halloween 2-Movie Collection (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray)

The Nightingale (Scream Factory, Blu-ray & DVD) 

Ouija Room (ITN Releasing, DVD)

Pagan Warrior (Mill Creek Entertainment, DVD) 

A Perfect Host (Uncork’d Entertainment, DVD) 

Perfect (Passion River, DVD) 

Restricted Area (Mill Creek Entertainment, DVD)

  • Heather Wixson
    About the Author - Heather Wixson

    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.