We’re less than 10 days away from Halloween now (YAY!), and if you’re on the hunt for some titles to indulge in to finish out your spooky season, this week’s Blu-ray and DVD releases might be of some assistance, as we have a fantastic array of new and old titles coming our way on Tuesday. As far as new horror goes, be sure to check out Chelsea Stardust’s Satanic Panic, Bloodline starring Seann William Scott, The Dead Center featuring Shane Carruth, and if you missed the first season, this week you can finally catch up with NOS4A2.

In terms of older titles, Kino Lorber is showing some love to Parasite 3-D, Phobia, Trilogy of Terror II, and Zoltan… Hound of Satan, and Warner Archive Collection is releasing the original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark on Blu as well.

Other releases for October 22nd include The Killer of Dolls, Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death, Tone-Deaf, and a re-release of Crimson Peak.

Bloodline (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)

Evan (Seann William Scott) values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learns that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

The Dead Center (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)

When a very dead suicide victim (Jeremy Childs, Preacher, Nashville) disappears from the morgue, it sets in motion a chain of events that has the power to immolate everything, and everyone, it touches. 

Troubled psychiatrist Daniel Forrester (Shane Carruth, Primer, Upstream Color) is drawn to help a mysterious patient who is brought to the emergency psych ward in a catatonic state with no memory of how he reached the hospital. As if to exorcise his own demons, the doctor feverishly tries to break through to his mysterious patient. But as a spate of mysterious deaths shake the ward to its core, Forrester comes to suspect that there is more to his new ward than meets the eye. As he comes to realize what he’s unleashed, a desperate race against the forces of evil threatens to swallow him whole.

The Dead Center is a smart supernatural thriller that explores the demons that live inside all of us from writer-director Billy Senese, recently hailed as a masterful new voice in terror . 

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

  • High Definition (1080p) Blu-rayTM presentation
    · 5.1 DTS-HD master audio and lossless stereo audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
  • Commentary with writer-director Billy Senese, producer-actor Shane Carruth and co-star Jeremy Childs
  • Commentary with writer-director Billy Senese, producers Denis Deck and Jonathan Rogers, and cinematographer Andy Duensing
  • A Walk ThroughThe Dead Center, an in-depth making-of documentary featuring new interviews with writer-director Billy Senese, producer-actor Shane Carruth, cinematographer Andy Duensing, and many others revisiting the locations and discussing the production
  • Nine deleted scenes, including an alternate ending
  • On-set interviews with actors Shane Carruth and Poorna Jagannathan
  • Head-Casting with Jeremy Childs, a brief look at the creation of the make-up effects seen in the climax of the film
  • Intruder, a short film from 2011 directed by Billy Senese and starring Jeremy Childs
  • The Suicide Tapes, the original short film from 2010 directed by Senese and starring Childs that later inspired The Dead Center
  • Midnight Radio Theater, six chilling radio plays (Insomnia, The Long Weekend, Disposable Life, The Suicide Tapes, The Woman In The Basement, Blood Oath, Flu ) written, produced and directed by Billy Senese
  • Theatrical trailer and teasers
  • Image gallery
  • Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork
  • FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jamie Graham

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray)

An old house...a mysterious locked room...a terrifying secret. Elements that make a horror movie memorably chilling get a taut, spooky reworking in Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Kim Darby (True Grit) and Jim Hutton (The Green Berets) star as Sally and Alex, young marrieds who inherit a crumbling mansion. Despite warnings to leave well enough alone in her new home, Sally unlocks the mysterious room, opens a bricked-up fireplace...and unleashes a horde of hideous whispering, murdering mini-demons only she can see and hear. This is the original TV movie that inspired the 2010 theatrical movie starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce.

The Killer of Dolls (Mondo Macabro, Blu-ray)

In this bizarre and totally unique piece of Spanish horror, David Rocha plays Paul, a young man thrown out of medical school due to his inability to deal with the sight of blood. He goes home to Montpellier in France where his father is gardener on a huge estate belonging to Countess Olivia (played by Helga Liné, ageless diva of Spanish horror). We soon discover that fear of blood is not Paul's only quirk. He was raised as a girl after his sister died and likes to play with dolls, performing strange operations on them, attempting to extract their hearts.

Meanwhile, in the park surrounding the Countesses' home, a number of young girls have been found murdered. The killer seems to be a mysterious individual wearing a black wig, a white doll mask and speaking with a woman's voice. As the killings multiply around him, Paul sinks ever deeper into a world of hallucination and nightmare.

Released here for the first time ever on Blu-ray and in its US premier, THE KILLER OF DOLLS is an original and unforgettable film that will be treasured by all who like their horror weird and unsettling.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
-Brand new 4k transfer from film negative
-Digitally restored
-Exclusive interview with actor David Rocha
-Interview with Dr. Antonio Lázaro-Reboll
-Audio commentary from Kat Ellinger
-Audio commentary from Robert Monell and Rod Barnett
-Newly created, optional English subtitles
-Mondo Macabro previews

Parasite 3-D (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray)

Newly restored in HD from a 4K scan of the original camera negative! 3-D restoration by the 3-D Film Archive! In the future, cities are ravaged by atomic fallout and controlled by evil corporations that have developed a mutant pair of flesh-eating parasites. One is feeding inside the man who created it. The other has escaped. Now with the help of a young woman left orphaned in the wasteland (Demi Moore, The Scarlett Letter), a scientist (Robert Claudine, Wavelength) on the run must destroy these horrific creatures before they can reproduce. But the more a parasite feeds, the bigger it becomes. And the more it grows, the hungrier and angrier it gets.

Released to theaters as “The First Futuristic Monster Movie in 3-D,” this sick shocker co-stars rocker Cherie Currie (Foxes), drive-in goddess Cheryl ‘Rain beaux’ Smith (Caged Heat) and Broadway legend Vivian Blaine (Guys and Dolls). Directed by cult great Charles Band (Trances, Blood Dolls) and featuring juicy creature effects by Academy Award-winner Stan Winston (The Terminator, Aliens), Parasite is now available for the first time in HD and 3-D!  

Special Features:

- Newly Restored in HD from a 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative

The BD includes both the 3-D and 2-D Version of the Film

- FROM THE INSIDE OUT: WRITING PARASITE - Featuring all-new interviews with writers Alan J. Adler and Michael Shoo

- THREE DIMENSIONS OF TERROR: FILMING PARASITE - Featuring all-new interviews with director Charles Band, co-writer Alan J. Adler, production manager Charles Newitt, art director Pamela B. Warner, and make-up department head Karen Kopeck

- SYMPHONY FOR SLIMY SLUGS: COMPOSING PARASITE - Featuring an all-new interview with composer Richard Band Interview with Creature Designer and Creator Lance Anderson

- Audio Commentary with Writer Alan J. Adler and Filmmaker/Historian Daniel Griffith

- Restoring Parasite in 3-D

- Still and Promotional Gallery

- 2 TV Spots

- Reversible Blu-ray Art

- Theatrical Trailer

Satanic Panic (RLJE Films, Blu-ray & DVD)

Sam’s first day as a pizza delivery driver is not going according to plan. At the end of a long day and not enough tips, her last delivery turns out to be for a group of Satanists looking for someone to sacrifice. Now in a fight for her life, Sam must fend off witches, evil spells and demonic creatures, all while trying to keep her body – and soul – intact. Starring Hayley Griffith (“The Loudest Voice”), Ruby Modine (Happy Death Day franchise), Jerry O’Connell (“Billions”) and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men franchise), Satanic Panic is “an absolutely entertaining horror film that will satisfy any viewer’s need for monsters, mayhem and…jokes” (Robert Saucedo, Birth.Movies.Death).

Trilogy of Terror II (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray)

Newly Restored in HD! Unleashed in the original classic hit Trilogy of Terror, the demonic Zuni fetish doll carved its way into horror movie history. Now the black-magic headhunter returns to life, headlining this diabolical anthology of fear.  

The Graveyard Rats – After bumping off her wealthy husband, a money-hungry wife faces an unexpected complication: a cemetery crawling with flesh-eating rodents. Written by Richard Matheson (The Night Stalker) and Henry Kotter (The Wonky) and directed by Dan Curtis (The Night Strangler).

Bobby – Monstrous consequences result when a mother strikes a devilish bargain to bring her drowned son back from the dead. Written by Matheson and directed by Curtis.  

He Who Kills – When an African Zuni fetish doll is tied to multiple grisly murders, a young scientist investigates and awakens an unspeakable ancient evil. Written by William F. Nolan (Burnt Offerings) and Dan Curtis and directed by Curtis. Starring Lisette Anthony (Krill), Matt Clark (White Lightning) and Geoffrey Lewis (High Plains Drifter).

Special Features:

-Audio Commentary by Film Historian Troy Hogarth

-Interview with Second Unit Director Eric Allard and Special Makeup Effects Artist Rick Stratton

-Trailers

Zoltan… Hound of Dracula (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray)

Brand New 4K Master! There’s More to the Legend Than Meets the Throat! When the Russian army unearths the vault of Dracula, they accidentally unleash his undead human slave (Reggie Nadler, Mark of the Devil) and the Count’s vampire hellhound Zoltan. But these friends need a new master and head for Los Angeles to find Dracula’s last living descendant, family man Michael Drake (Michael Pataki, Grave of the Vampire). With the help of an international vampire hunter, Inspector Bronco (José Ferrer, The Sentinel), can Drake destroy Zoltan and his pack of blood-crazed devil-dogs—before “man’s best friend” fetches the final soul of the damned? Also known as Dracula’s Dog, this ferociously fun horror film was directed by Albert Band (I Bury the Living, Ghoulies II) and features makeup effects by Academy Award-winner Stan Winston (Parasite, Aliens).  

Special Features:

-Audio Commentary by Film Historians Lee Gambino and John Harrison

-Radio Spot

-Reversible Dracula's Dog Art

-Theatrical Trailer

ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK: 

Crimson Peak: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)

NOS4A2: Season One (RLJE Films, Blu-ray & DVD) 

Phobia (KL Studio Classics, Blu-ray)

Tone-Deaf (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)

Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (Mondo Macabro, Blu-ray)

  • 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.