With Christmas officially just right around the corner, we have one last big push for home media before the big day, just in case you have any last-minute shopping to do. This week’s horror and sci-fi releases make for a pretty great final batch of titles for 2019, too, with Scream Factory at the forefront. Not only have they put together a Collector’s Edition for Silver Bullet (which is probably my most anticipated release of theirs for the entire year), but they’ve also put together a new volume of Universal Horror films and are showing some love to Murders in the Rue Morgue and To The Devil… A Daughter as well.
Ad Astra is also hitting various formats this Tuesday, and if you missed it during its release in October, Patrick Lussier’s Trick comes home on both Blu-ray and DVD this week, too.
Other releases for December 17th include Gags the Clown, Wicked World, Crypsis, Famine, and Detention.
Ad Astra (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo, Blu/Digital & DVD)
Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet.
Murders in the Rue Morgue (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, Murders In The Rue Morgue is a haunting atmospheric thriller heavily influenced by the German Expressionist classic, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, and features Bela Lugosi in one of his most sinister roles! A deranged scientist, Dr. Mirakle (Lugosi), searches Paris for a "prospective bride" for his pet gorilla. Inviting young ladies to his laboratory, he injects his victims with gorilla blood and then disposes of their ravaged bodies through a trapdoor. Mirakle finally settles on a beautiful woman to be the mate of the gorilla, kidnapping her from her fiancé, Pierre Dupin. But just as the young lady is about to be sacrificed in the name of unholy science, a frantic Dupin locates his betrothed and tries to rescue her from Mirakle's unspeakable evolutionary experiments.
Silver Bullet: Collector’s Edition (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Stephen King's masterful werewolf novelette comes alive! In Stephen King's thrilling adaptation of his novelette, Cycle Of The Werewolf, a peaceful town is suddenly terrorized by a maniacal killer. The townsfolk think a madman is on the loose, but a wheelchair-bound 13-year-old (Corey Haim, The Lost Boys) knows the truth ... a werewolf is on the hunt. With the help of his Uncle Red (Gary Busey, Lethal Weapon), young Marty Coslaw sets out to stop the half-man/half-beast before he sinks his teeth into another innocent victim. Now, time is ticking ... and the full moon is about to rise.
To the Devil… A Daughter (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
First, Rosemary's Baby. Then, The Exorcist. And now a motion picture that probes further into the mysteries of the occult! A heretic priest (Christopher Lee) plots to use a teenage nun (Nastassja Kinski) in a depraved pact with the forces of darkness. But when an American occult novelist (Richard Widmark) uncovers the conspiracy, he must battle an international cabal of evil for the body and soul of the Devil's child-bride! Honor Blackman and Denholm Elliott co-star in this notorious shocker directed by Peter Sykes (Demons Of The Mind) and based on the best-selling novel by Dennis Wheatley (The Devil Rides Out).
Trick (RLJE Films, Blu-ray & DVD)
On Halloween night in 2015, Patrick “Trick” Weaver massacred his classmates at a costume party. After being arrested, he managed to escape police custody, but not before being shot five times by Detective Mike Denver. Everyone believes Trick must be dead, but when a masked killer reappears the following Halloween, and every Halloween after that, they realize the nightmare is not over. With Trick wreaking havoc and killing people in increasingly terrifying ways, Denver will stop at nothing to finish what he started and bring the carnage to an end.
Universal Horror Collection: Volume 3 (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Get ready for more thrills and chills! Volume 3 of the Universal Horror Collection includes four tales of terror from the archives of Universal Pictures, the true home of classic horror. This collection includes such horror stars as Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr. and Basil Rathbone. A ruthless king rises to power with the help of his mad and murderous executioner in Tower of London. A mad scientist transforms a carnival performer into a murderous monster in Man Made Monster. In The Black Cat, a group of greedy heirs find themselves stuck in a creepy mansion where, one by one, people turn up dead. What started out as a treasure-making scheme ends up deadly for a group of people stuck in a haunted castle with a killer known as "the Phantom" in Horror Island.
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
Abduction 101 (Wild Eye Raw, DVD)
The Big F (Wild Eye Raw, DVD)
Crypsis (Uncork’d Entertainment, DVD)
Detention (SGL Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)
Famine (Unearthed Films, Blu-ray & DVD)
Gags the Clown (Doppleganger Releasing, Blu-ray & DVD)
Main Street Meats (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
Night Howl (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
Virus of the Dead (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
Wicked World (AGFA, Blu/DVD 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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