The third week of September has a lot of fantastic horror and sci-fi home entertainment offerings coming our way, including an incredible pair of Criterion Blu-ray releases—Cat People (1942) and Blood Simple—as well as the 30th Anniversary Edition of Labyrinth and the Special Edition of Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Dead End Drive-In. Other notable titles being released on September 20th include the horror doc The Blackout Experiments (which premiered earlier this year at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival), Sacrifice, The Rift (1990), Beware! The Blob, and a Blu-ray set featuring all kinds of Twin Peaks goodness.
Beware! The Blob (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray & DVD)
Newly Re-mastered in HD! The Blob returns... more outrageous than ever in this 1972 sequel to the popular sci-fi classic! Plenty of familiar faces, including Robert Walker Jr. (Ensign Pulver), Larry Hagman (Dallas), Sid Haig (Busting), Burgess Meredith (Rocky), Dick Van Patten (Eight is Enough), Godfrey Cambridge (Cotton Comes to Harlem), Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley), Carole Lynley (The Poseidon Adventure), Gerrit Graham (Used Cars) and Shelley Berman (You Don’t Mess with the Zohan) add to the fun. A geologist (Cambridge) unwittingly brings home an unusual frozen piece of debris from the North Pole. But when it accidentally thaws, the hungrier-than-ever Blob comes to life again, consuming nearly everyone in its path and terrorizing the town. No one is safe as it crawls into a bowling alley, oozes its way across an ice rink, becoming grotesquely bloated with the blood of its victims... can this bizarre creature ever be stopped? TV legend Larry Hagman directed this cult classic, the only feature film he ever directed upon its 1980s re-release, the film was tagged "The Film that J.R. Shot!".
Bonus Features include Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith, Alternate Title Sequence and Trailers.
Labyrinth: 30th Anniversary Edition (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)
An imaginative 16-year old girl is given 13 hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King. The generation-defining Jim Henson fantasy classic celebrates its 30th anniversary with fully restored picture & sound and all-new special features. Starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.
Blu-ray Bonus Features Include:
o Jennifer Connelly and the Henson family talk about the art of puppetry and the magic of Jim Henson, along with a visit to the “Center for Puppetry Arts” featuring The Jim Henson Collection and over 100 puppets from Labyrinth.
o Hosted by Mythbuster’s Adam Savage with participants Brian Henson, David Goelz and Karen Prell, and surprise guest
Sheri Weiser.
o Remembering David Bowie with co-star Jennifer Connelly, and Jim Henson’s children Brian Henson and Cheryl Henson.
Blood Simple (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray)
Joel and Ethan Coen’s career-long darkly comic road trip through misfit America began with this razor-sharp, hard-boiled neo-noir set somewhere in Texas, where a sleazy bar owner releases a torrent of violence with one murderous thought. Actor M. Emmet Walsh looms over the proceedings as a slippery private eye with a yellow suit, a cowboy hat, and no moral compass, and Frances McDormand’s cunning debut performance set her on the road to stardom. The tight scripting and inventive style that have marked the Coens’ work for decades are all here in their first film, in which cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld abandons black-and-white chiaroscuro for neon signs and jukebox colors that combine with Carter Burwell’s haunting score to lurid and thrilling effect. Blending elements from pulp fiction and low-budget horror flicks, Blood Simple reinvented the film noir for a new generation, marking the arrival of a filmmaking ensemble that would transform the American independent cinema scene.
Director-Approved Edition includes New, restored 4K digital transfer, approved by cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray, New conversation between Sonnenfeld and the Coens about the film’s look, featuring Telestrator video illustrations
New conversation between author Dave Eggers and the Coens about the film’s production, from inception to release, New interviews with composer Carter Burwell, sound mixer Skip Lievsay, and actors Frances McDormand and M. Emmet Walsh, Trailers, PLUS: An essay by novelist and critic Nathaniel Rich.
Cat People (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray)
The first of the horror films producer Val Lewton made for RKO Pictures redefined the genre by leaving its most frightening terrors to its audience’s imagination. Simone Simon stars as a Serbian émigré in Manhattan who believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves (Kent Smith) will turn her into a feline predator. Lewton, a consummate producer-auteur who oversaw every aspect of his projects, found an ideal director in Jacques Tourneur, a chiaroscuro stylist adept at keeping viewers off-kilter with startling compositions and psychological innuendo. Together, they eschewed the canned effects of earlier monster movies in favor of shocking with subtle shadows and creative audio cues. One of the studio’s most successful movies of the 1940s, Cat People raised the creature feature to new heights of sophistication and mystery.
Special Features include New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray, Audio commentary from 2005 featuring film historian Gregory Mank, with excerpts from an audio interview with actor Simone Simon, Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows, a 2008 feature-length documentary that explores the life and career of the legendary Hollywood producer, Interview with director Jacques Tourneur from 1979
New interview with cinematographer John Bailey about the look of the film, Trailer, PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien.
Dead End Drive-In: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray)
THE PRICE OF ADMISSION IS THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. One of Quentin Tarantino's favourite directors, Brian Trenchard-Smith was a key figure in the Ozploitation movement, responsible for The Man from Hong Kong, Stunt Rock, Turkey Shoot, BMX Bandits... and dystopian cult classic Dead-End Drive In!
Set in a near-future where the economy has crumbled and violent gangs play havoc in the streets, the powers-that-be have decided to lure the delinquent youth into drive-in cinemas and keep them there. No longer just a place to watch trashy movies and make out, these outdoor picture shows have become concentration camps for the unruly and unwanted.
With its Day-Glo colour scheme, new wave soundtrack and extraordinary stunt work, Dead-End Drive-In is in the tradition of Ozploitation milestones Mad Max and The Cars That Ate Paris only very, very eighties.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
First pressing only: fully-illustrated collector s booklet containing writing on the films by Cullen Gallagher and Neil Mitchell
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
Cat's Eye (New Line Home Video, Blu-ray - Best Buy Exclusive)
IT (New Line Home Video, Blu-ray - Best Buy Exclusive)
Salem's Lot (New Line Home Video, Blu-ray - Best Buy Exclusive)
Alienween: Halloween Party Apocalypse (Bayview Entertainment, DVD)
The Blackout Experiments (FilmRise, Blu-ray & DVD)
The Killer Shrews/The Giant Gila Monster Double Feature (Bayview Entertainment, DVD)
Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite (Level 33 Entertainment, DVD)
The Rift (1990) (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray & DVD)
Sacrifice (Scream Factory/IFC Midnight, Blu/DVD Combo)
Twin Peaks: The Original Series, Fire Walk With Me & The Missing Pieces (Paramount, Blu-ray)
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.
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
