Genre fans have many reasons to rejoice this Tuesday, as we have numerous home media releases to look forward to that day. Arrow Video has put together stellar Blu-rays for Two Thousand Maniacs!, and Scream Factory is celebrating Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive trilogy with a mind-blowingly great box set for all three films. The Return of the Swamp Thing is also getting a brand new Blu-ray, and for all you Wyld Stallyns enthusiasts out there, Shout Factory’s 3oth anniversary Steelbook for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a must-own.
Other notable releases for May 15th include Black Panther, Doctor Blood’s Coffin, Rick and Morty: Season 3, The Manor, Apartment 212, and Platoon of the Dead.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: 30th Anniversary Steelbook (Shout Factory, Blu-ray)
Bill and Ted are high school buddies starting a band. However, they are about to fail their history class, which means Ted would be sent to military school. They receive help from Rufus, a traveler from a future where their band is the foundation for a perfect society. With the use of Rufus' time machine, Bill and Ted travel to various points in history, returning with important figures to help them complete their final history presentation.
Doctor Blood’s Coffin (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
After being dismissed from medical school because of his devious experiments, Doctor Peter Blood returns home to join his father's practice. He still believes he can create the perfect human, so he continues his experiments in an abandoned mine where he attempts to revive a rotting corpse. But Dr. Blood needs a living "donor" to create his "perfect human" and soon people start to disappear from the nearby village. This shocker stars Kieron Moore (The Day Of The Triffids) and Hazel Court (The Curse Of Frankenstein, The Masque Of The Red Death) and was directed by Sidney J. Furie (The Entity, The Ipcress File).
It’s Alive Trilogy (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
It's newborn and … It's Alive … and murder is what it knows best! A proud couple's bundle of joy is really a newborn terror in filmmaker Larry Cohen's cautionary cult hit that tapped into environmental fears. The horror grows when multiple child monsters rampage in the first sequel It Lives Again as two brave parents try to stop them by becoming the bait for their spree. The now global mutants are rounded up and relocated to a far-flung island in It's Alive III: Island of the Alive. Will a parent's greatest nightmare become the world's gravest fear? Find out ... if you dare.
It's Alive is the first film of the classic trilogy from writer/director Larry Cohen about murderous mutants – and its birth was chillingly midwifed by the crucial contributions of two Academy Award® winners*: makeup master Rick Baker (who created the makeup and "played" the infant monster) and composer Bernard Herrmann.
Is it human? Is it a beast? Whatever it is, It Lives Again in this second film in cult filmmaker Larry Cohen’s Alive Trilogy. Once again, Cohen brings to the screen a hideous threesome of mutant baby monsters that are the evolutionary response to man’s polluted environment. These frightened creatures lash out with deadly claws at what they don’t understand. There are only three, but they could reproduce into uncontrollable millions if someone doesn’t destroy them. Fredric Forrest (Apocalypse Now) and Kathleen Lloyd (The Car) star as the loving parents of one of the monstrous creatures. Parental love, however, is no match for these hell-spawned mutants. Their wild blood binge must be stopped. Will the next stage of their evolution become our last?
In It’s Alive III: Island Of The Alive, Michael Moriarty (Q: The Winged Serpent) and Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror) star as Stephen and Ellen Jarvis, the distraught parents of one of the new mutant children. They’ve watched in horror as government death squads roamed the earth, shooting the humanoids on sight. They’ve suffered through the court hearings that sentenced their child and other surviving mutants to a remote, uninhabited island. And their nightmare continues … because the abandoned creatures are now grown … and they are coming back home to the society that created and rejected them. And no one who stands in their way will live.
IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY SPECIAL FEATURES:
IT’S ALIVE:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films: featuring interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon and more…
- NEW It’s Alive at the Nuart: The 40th Anniversary Screening with Larry Cohen
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Radio Spots
- TV Spots
- Theatrical Trailer
- Still Gallery
IT LIVES AGAIN:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Theatrical Trailer
- Still Gallery
IT’S ALIVE 3: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Larry Cohen
- Trailer
- Still Gallery
The Return of the Swamp Thing (MVD Rewind Collection, Blu/DVD Combo)
After her mother's mysterious death, Abigail Arcane (Heather Locklear) travels to the Florida swamps to confront her resurrected evil stepfather Dr. Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan). In an attempt to stave off the effects of aging, Dr. Arcane, assisted by Dr. Lana Zurrell (Sarah Douglas), combines genes from various swamp animals and human beings, creating an army of monsters known as Un-Men. When Abby arrives, Dr. Arcane is hell-bent on taking his own stepdaughter's life in the name of science... that is until she is rescued by SWAMP THING in this must-see sequel to the original cult classic and based on the award-winning DC Comics series!
From the executive producers of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan and legendary cult film director Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall, Not of This Earth),The Return of Swamp Thing features an all-star cast that includes Heather Locklear (Melrose Place, Uptown Girls), Louis Jordan (Swamp Thing, Octopussy), Sarah Douglas (Superman II, Conan The Destroyer) and Dick Durock (Raw Deal, Stand By Me) returning as the SWAMP THING.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
Two Thousand Maniacs! (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)
After shocking and outraging the world with his genre-defining 1963 gore-fest Blood Feast, exploitation pioneer H.G. Lewis would seek (and positively succeed!) to outdo himself with the deliciously depraved Two Thousand Maniacs!
When a group of Yankee tourists take a detour and wind up in the small Southern town of Pleasant Valley which has magically rematerialized 100 years after its destruction during the Civil War they find themselves welcomed by the eager townsfolk as guests of honour at their centennial celebrations. Little do the Northerners know that the festivities are set to include torture, death and dismemberment...
Also including H.G. Lewis fist fightin’, hooch-swillin’ epic Moonshine Mountain as a bonus feature, this is one double-dose of hicksploitation truly worthy of an almighty Yeehah!
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
Apartment 212 (Gravitas Ventures, Blu-ray & DVD)
Black Panther (Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 4K Ultra HD/Blu Combo, Blu/Digital/DVD Combo, & DVD)
The Manor (Lionsgate, DVD)
Moma’s Spirit (Maverick Entertainment Group, DVD)
Platoon of the Dead (Tempe Video, Blu-ray & DVD)
Poison Sweethearts (Tempe Video, Blu-ray & DVD)
Rick and Morty: Season 3 (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)
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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