Hello, readers, and welcome to a new year of releases! We may already be well into the month of January, but this is our first official weekly Blu-ray and DVD recap of 2019, since last week was a quiet one on the home media front, and we already have a ton of titles to get excited for this Tuesday. If you happened to miss Hell Fest when it was in theaters last year, you can now catch up with Gregory Plotkin’s slasher on various formats, and as far as recent genre series are concerned, the first seasons of both The Purge and Castle Rock are making their way home tomorrow as well.
Scream Factory is kicking off another great year of releases with the Nic Cage thriller 8MM, and Scorpion Releasing has put together a special edition Blu for Blind Date (no, not the one with Bruce Willis) that cult fans are going to want to pick up. Kino Lorber is keeping busy this Tuesday with an array of titles that include Let the Corpses Tan (which made my Favorites List for 2018), The House That Would Not Die, and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (the latter two under their Classics label).
Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for January 8th include Judgment Night, Nemesis, and All the Creatures Were Stirring, which makes its Blu debut this week.
8MM (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Academy Award®-winner Nicolas Cage (1995, Best Actor, Leaving Las Vegas) stars in 8MM, an electrifying thriller about one man’s obsessive search for the truth about a six-year-old crime and his ultimate discovery of the truth about himself. On January 8, 2019, SCREAM FACTORY™ is proud to present 8MM on Blu-ray™. Directed by Joel Schumacher (Trespass, Batman Forever, A Time to Kill) and written by Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, Sleepy Hollow, The Follow), the film stars Nicolas Cage (Looking Glass, Face/Off), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line, Her), James Gandolfini (The Sopranos, The Drop), Peter Stormare (Longmire, The Blacklist), Anthony Heald (The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon), and Chris Bauer (The Deuce, True Blood).
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- NEW 8MM in 35MM – an interview with producer/director Joel Schumacher
- Audio Commentary with producer/director Joel Schumacher
- Vintage Behind the Scene featurette
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spots
- Still Gallery
Blind Date: Special Edition (Scorpion Releasing, Blu-ray)
Struck by sudden blindness, ad executive Jonathon Ratcliff (Joseph Bottoms, The Black Hole, Crime and Passion, The Dove) is frustrated when doctors can find nothing wrong with him. With the aid of his girlfriend (Kirstie Alley, Cheers, Look Who’s Talking), he consults a top eye doctor (Keir Dullea, 2001: A Space Odyssey, David and Lisa) who fits him with an experimental device allowing him to see with the aid of a computer interface and brain electrodes. Meanwhile, a taxi driver is taking young women up to their apartments, sedating them, and performing a little fatal amateur surgery. Their paths inevitably converge as the serial killer starts cutting too close to home. From cult director Nico Mastorakis (Island of Death) comes a sexy, sleek thriller co-starring Lana Clarkson (Haunting of Morella, Barbarian Queen), James Daughton (Malibu Beach, Animal House), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Wicked Lady) and Valeria Golino (Rain Man), plus a chilling score by Stanley Myers (The Deer Hunter, Conduct Unbecoming, Cold Heaven) with songs by John Kongos. Scorpion Releasing proudly presents this cult classic from a brand new 4k scan of the original director’s cut, supervised by the director.
Special Features:
-Music Videos
-Trailers
-Still Gallery
-The Films of Nico Mastorakis
-Theatrical Cut SD
-5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo
Hell Fest (Lionsgate, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo, Blu/DVD Combo & DVD)
A group of friends are bound for a horror-themed Halloween event at a local amusement park — a sprawling labyrinth of rides, games, and mazes that travels the country and happens to be in town. But for one visitor, the ghoulish carnival of nightmares is not the attraction — it is a hunting ground. On the night the friends attend, a masked serial killer turns the amusement park into his own playground, terrorizing attendees while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show. As the body count and frenzied excitement of the crowd continues to rise, who will fight to survive the night?
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- “Thrills and Kills: Making Hell Fest” Featurette
- Theatrical Trailer
The Purge: Season One (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)
From Blumhouse Productions comes the "darker, freakier, better" (Daily Beast) TV series. During a 12-hour period when all crime — including murder — is legal, a group of seemingly unrelated characters cross paths in a city in an altered America. While the clock winds down, some will fight, some will hide, others will embrace what it means to Purge to its fullest extent—whether for revenge, personal gain, protection, or unadulterated glee. As each character is forced to reckon with their past and plot how to better their futures, they soon discover how far they will go on Purge Night. Dive deep into the psyche of the Purgers with Season 1 of the series that critics rave is "bloody good fun" (AV Club).
What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?: Special Edition (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray & DVD)
BRAND NEW HD MASTER FROM A 4K SCAN OF THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE! Oscar winners Geraldine Page (The Trip to Bountiful, Sweet Bird of Youth) and Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude, Rosemary’s Baby) sharpen their claws on each other in this chilling thriller about a lost fortune, a mad heiress and a housekeeper hell-bent on digging up the truth. Mrs. Marrable (Page) is a society matron who's had some shocking news: her late husband left her only a stamp collection. Determined to maintain her extravagant lifestyle, she takes advantage of an unlikely new source of income—her housekeepers, by robbing them not only of their life savings, but also their lives. The turnover rate for help speeds faster than a revolving door... until Mrs. Marrable's latest hire, Mrs. Dimmock (Gordon), develops a drive to unearth the terrible secret buried in the front yard. Directed Lee H. Katzin (Le Mans) and co-starring Rosemary Forsyth (How Do I Love Thee?). Produced by Robert Aldrich (The Grissom Gang).
SPECIAL FEATURES:
-NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith
-Theatrical Trailer
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
All the Creatures Were Stirring (RLJE Films, Blu-ray)
Castle Rock: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu, Blu/DVD Combo & DVD)
The House That Would Not Die: Special Edition (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray & DVD)
Judgment Night (Warner Archives Collection, Blu-ray)
Let the Corpses Tan (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray & DVD)
Nemesis: Collector’s Edition (MVD Rewind Collection, 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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