We have another busy week of home entertainment releases on the horizon, as there are over two dozen titles making their way to Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. For those of you cult film enthusiasts, you have a lot of options when it comes to adding items to your collections, as Alienator is being resurrected by Scream Factory, Arrow Video is unleashing a special edition set for Madhouse, and Mondo Macabre has given Paul Naschy’s Inquisition an HD overhaul as well.
As if that wasn’t enough, we also have new releases for The Hound of Baskervilles, Medusa, and Nicholas Ray’s classic noir They Live By Night to look forward to as well. For you TV lovers out there, the box sets for the final season of both The Vampire Diaries and Grimm are being released Tuesday, and for those who are on the hunt for some new action cinema, Headshot (from co-directors Timo Tjahjanto and Kimo Stamboel, and starring The Raid’s Iko Uwais) should do the trick.
If you've made the upgrade to 4K Ultra HD, both Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes make their debut this week on the super stunning format.
Other notable releases for June 13th include Badass Monster Killer, The Butcher Possessions, Dark Matter: Season Two, and Forest of the Vampire.
Alienator (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
In deep space, the deadliest animal is still woman!
It’s a futuristic fight to the finish when the Commander of a space station prison (Jan Michael-Vincent, The Mechanic, White Line Fever) takes on galactic archvillain Kol (Ross Hagen, Avenging Angel). When Kol escapes, on the verge of his execution, the Commander has no choice but to unleash the Alienator: a ruthless android hunter with one unstoppable purpose: terminate Kol at any cost!
Kol’s shuttle crash-lands on Earth and the Alienator is hot on his trail. She is determined to capture her prey: even if it means blowing away everything and everyone in her path.
This sci-fi action film co-stars John Phillip Law (Barbarella), P.J. Soles (Carrie, Halloween, Rock n Roll High School) and featuring female bodybuilder Teagan as the Alienator.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Headshot (Lionsgate, DVD)
Iko Uwais plays a young man who washes ashore, an amnesiac with a serious head injury whose past comes back to haunt him shortly after being nursed back to health by a young doctor. Violence ensues. Sweet, sweet violence.
The Hound of Baskervilles (Kino Lorber, DVD)
Mastered in HD! Peter Cushing (The Skull) is a splendid Sherlock Holmes and Andre Morell (TV’s Quatermass and the Pit) is the perfect Dr. Watson in this terror-filled mystery classic co-starring horror legend Christopher Lee (House of the Long Shadows). With its compelling acting and spooky cinematography, this top-notch murder-mystery will keep you guessing and gasping until the final frame. A fiendish evil lurks beneath the mist-shrouded cliffs of England's fabled moors. In the form of a hellish hound, it feeds upon the trembling flesh of the heirs of Baskerville Hall. But before this savage beast can sink its teeth into the newest lord of the manor, it must pit its vicious fangs against the searing intellect of the most powerful foe it has ever encountered - the incomparable Sherlock Holmes. Hammer legend Terence Fisher (The Man Who Could Cheat Death) directed this masterpiece in suspense and horror, which was called The Best Sherlock Holmes Film Ever Made! by Time Out Film Guide.
Special Features: Featurette with Christopher Lee | Trailers
Inquisition (Mondo Macabre, Blu-ray)
In 16th century France, Inquisitor and magistrate Bernard de Fossey (Paul Naschy) travels to the plague-ridden region of Peyriac in search of witches and devil worshippers. Local beauty Catherine (Daniela Giordano) quickly catches his eye, tormenting him with impure thoughts, although her affections lie with her handsome fiancé Jean. Meanwhile, embittered one-eyed manservant Rénover (Antonio Iranzo) presents Bernard with his first group of torture victims when he accuses several sexy young things who spurned his advances of being witches responsible for the plague.
One by one, beautiful women are tortured on the rack then burned at the stake. No one seems able to halt the Inquisition's reign of terror or the baseless accusations that cause so many innocent deaths. When Jean dies in mysterious circumstances, Catherine allies herself with Satan to get revenge on her enemies - foremost among them, De Fossey himself.
This was horror star Paul Naschy's directorial debut and one of his very best films. He plays three roles - Inquisitor De Fossey, the Devil, and the Grim Reaper. The film is a brutal and unrelenting portrait of a past when superstition and terror ruled the minds of men.
Special Features:
Madhouse: 2-Disc Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu/DVD Combo)
MANY PEOPLE VISIT ... NO ONE EVER LEAVES.
Helmed by legendary producer/director Ovidio Assonitis, the man behind such cult favourites as The Visitor and Piranha II: The Spawning, Madhouse is a crimson-soaked tale of sibling rivalry taken to a terrifying and bloody extreme.
Julia has spent her entire adult life trying to forget the torment she suffered at the hands of her twisted twin Mary... but Mary hasn’t forgotten. Escaping hospital, where she s recently been admitted with a horrific, disfiguring illness, Julia’s sadistic sister vows to exact a particularly cruel revenge on her sibling this year promising a birthday surprise that she’ll never forget.
An Italian production shot entirely in Savannah, Georgia, Madhouse (aka And When She Was Bad and There Was a Little Girl) fuses slasher elements with the over-the-top excess of 80s Italian terror resulting in a cinematic bloodbath so gut-wrenching that the British authorities saw fit to outlaw it as a video nasty.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
They Live By Night: Special Edition (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray)
Legendary director Nicholas Ray began his career with this lyrical film noir, the first in a series of existential genre films overflowing with sympathy for America’s outcasts and underdogs. When the wide-eyed fugitive Bowie (Farley Granger), having broken out of prison with some bank robbers, meets the innocent Keechie (Cathy O’Donnell), each recognizes something in the other that no one else ever has. The young lovers envision a new, decent life together, but as they flee the cops and contend with Bowie’s fellow outlaws, who aren’t about to let him go straight, they realize there’s nowhere left to run. Ray brought an outsider’s sensibility honed in the theater to this debut, using revolutionary camera techniques and naturalistic performances to craft a profoundly romantic crime drama that paved the way for decades of lovers-on-the-run thrillers to come.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
-New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
-Audio commentary featuring film historian Eddie Muller and actor Farley Granger
-New video interview with film critic Imogen Sara Smith
-Short piece from 2007 with film critic Molly Haskell, filmmakers Christopher Coppola and Oliver Stone, and film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
-Illustrated audio interview excerpts from 1956 with producer John Houseman
-PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
The Amazing Spider-Man Limited Edition Collection (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Blu/Digital HD)
Amityville: No Escape (Video Music, Inc., DVD)
Badass Monster Killer (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
The Birds/Psycho Double Feature (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, DVD)
The Butcher Possessions (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
The Casebook of Eddie Brewer (Bayview Entertainment, DVD)
Dark Matter: Season Two (Funimation, Blu-ray & DVD)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Fox Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu/Digital HD Combo)
Death Cam: Volume 1 (World Wide Multimedia, DVD)
Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu/Digital HD & DVD)
Dry Bones (Bayview Entertainment, DVD)
Forest of the Vampire (Wild Eye Releasing, DVD)
Grimm: Season Six (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu/Digital HD & DVD)
Grimm: The Complete Collection (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)
The Killer Sci-Fi 3-Pack (SGL Entertainment, Blu-ray)
Medusa (Ariztical Entertainment, DVD)
Navy Seals V Demons (Ripped Boxers, Blu-ray & DVD)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Fox Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu/Digital HD Combo)
Sci-Fi 4-Movie Series (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, DVD)
Spider-Man Trilogy Limited Edition Collection (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Blu/Digital HD)
Stephen King Triple Feature: The Stand, The Langoliers, Golden Years (Paramount, DVD)
The Vampire Diaries: The Eighth and Final Season (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Blu/Digital HD & DVD)