From Second Sight comes the midnight movie favourite, Basket Case, remastered on Blu-ray using the original 16mm master. If you still own the old VHS or have a dodgy TV recording on DVD, then now is the time to chuck it.
Director Frank Henenlotter’s madcap 1982 horror parody follows vengeful Siamese twins Duane and Belial as they set out to kill the doctors who separated them as children. While Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) is a normal-looking teen, his brother is a hideously-deformed monster. Featuring a host of zany characters, hilarious death scenes and the longest screen scream ever, this is one film that deserves its cult status.
The two sequels, made eight years after the original, finds fugitives Duane and Belial hiding out with Granny Ruth (played by reknowned jazz singer Annie Ross) at her home for deformed individuals and doing battle with tabloid journalists and corrupt police officials who want to cash in on their infamy at the Times Square Freak Brothers. While the sequels are a much more slapstick comic affair, possessing an Addams Family air, with creature that look right out of The Monster Club, its great to have Henenlotter’s warped trilogy together in one box-set. Mind you, watching Belial having sex with a fellow freak is still a bit of a gross-out.
The Second Sight extras include a making of the trilogy with the films director and stars; outtakes; trailers; a photo gallery; and a great featurette about illustrator Graham Humphreys who did the amazing artwork for the new box-set.
UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS:
THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION (Blu-ray)
For the first time ever, eight of the most iconic cinematic masterpieces of the horror genre are available together on Blu-ray. Digitally restored in HD, this set includes a never-before-seen featurette about the restoration of Dracula and the first ever offering of Creature from the Black Lagoon in its restored Blu-ray 3D version.
HAMMER HORROR (Blu-ray and DVD)
2012 has seen a number of Hammer’s iconic horrors resurrected from the archives with beautifully restored versions of The Curse of Frankenstein (Lionsgate) and six from Studio Canal: Dracula, Prince of Darkness, The Reptile, Plague of the Zombies, The Devil Rides Out, Rasputin – The Mad Monk and The Mummy’s Shroud. From Hammer’s rival, Tigon, The Blood Beast Terror has also been released on Blu-ray.
GHOST STORIES (DVD)
This collection of the BBC’s much-loved A Ghost Story for Christmas series brings all the episodes together in five-disc box-set. Amongst the 12 films are nine adaptations of tales by MR James, including Jonathan Miller’s Whistle and I’ll Come to You and Lawrence Gordon Clark’s A Warning to the Curious. Other films include Clark’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ The Signalman and two original stories: Stigma and The Ice House. A selection of special features are also included, including three unreleased episodes of the BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee series.
ULTIMATE ZOMBIE FEAST (DVD)
This 2-disc box-set features more than five hours of gut-munching zombie films from around the world. Including festival favourite Dead Hungry, the action-packed Arise, the gory-chic of Paris by Night of the Living Dead, the Mormon zombie movie The Book of Zombie, the clever animation of It Came from the West, one of India’s first ever zombie films Savages, and 10 zombie shorts to devour. Check out the trailer (click here).
Halloween 1-5 Collection (DVD)
Following the excellent restored Blu-ray releases of Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Anchor Bay have brought out this box-set comprising the first five films from the original franchise – just in time for the scary season.
