Befuddled about what to stuff in those stockings hanging over the fireplace? Try any of these Blu-ray gems to add joy and fear for the holidays.
Horror Of Dracula (Warner Archive) Hammer Studios’ 1958 masterpiece starring Christopher Lee as the snarling, fanged vampire. Fairly faithful to the Bram Stoker novel, the costumes, sets, cast (with the magnificent Peter Cushing as hunter Van Helsing), not to mention plenty of heaving bosoms and blood, made this a game changer for the studio, and horror movies in general. Christopher Lee adds elegance, seductive charm, and palpable menace. The Blu-ray looks exquisite.
The Satanic Rites Of Dracula (Warner Archive) The vampire Count (Christopher Lee) in 70s London with Ab Fab’s Patsy (Joanna Lumley) playing the granddaughter of Van Helsing (Peter Cushing). This was Christopher Lee’s final Dracula movie for Hammer Studios, and he is in disguise as a wealthy industrialist in a modern office building. He heads a devil cult, filled with high members of government. One, a Nobel-prize-winning scientist is creating a virulent strain of bubonic plague, fulfilling Dracula’s plan for an Armageddon. This title has had a checkered history on home video- it fell into “public domain,” but thanks to Warner Archive it’s fully uncut and looks stunning on Blu-ray.
Critters Box Set (Shout Factory) Critters was a 1976 PG-13 horror/comedy about some renegade space aliens- furry, rolling, toothy furballs- who crash-land on earth and attack a Kansas farmhouse. Special effects for the critters were created by the Chiodo Brothers. Dee Wallace Stone is fabulous, as usual, as the mom. Billy Zane plays her daughter’s unfortunate date who gets chomped by the creatures in a barn. This was New Line Cinema’s answer to Gremlins, but the script was actually written way before that was even made. It’s great fun, and spawned three more sequels- which are included in this special box set. A young Leonard DiCaprio shows up in Critters 3.
Zombie (Blue Underground) A classic Italian shocker from Lucio Fulci (The Beyond) with a 4K restoration that really blows away any other copy of the movie you’ve ever owned. This gory, 1979 shocker stars Tisa Farrow (Mia’s sister) who travels to a Caribbean island looking for her father only to find the place cursed by voodoo and the dead dangerously rising from their graves. There’s a memorable shard-of-wood-through-the-eyeball sequence and an underwater fight between a shark and a rotting corpse. They living-dead even make it to Manhattan in this grisly great, which really looks incredible and comes with scores of extras.
Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (Warner Archive) John Guillermin (The Towering Inferno) gives a more adult, action-packed entry in the Tarzan series. Musclebound Gordon Scott plays the vine-swinging Tarzan, chasing a bunch of nefarious British diamond smugglers and killers through the jungles of Kenya. Anthony Quayle is great as Tarzan’s scar-faced nemesis, and a young, scruffy Sean Connery is a loutish member of his crew. Tarzan travels with a tart-tongued adventuress (Sara Shane), who he rescues in a plane crash and holds her own during the perilous journey. This looks incredible on Blu-ray, and is pretty terrific.
Jack Irish Season 2 (Acorn) Guy Pearce is fantastic in this excellent Australian series.He plays Jack Irish, a former lawyer, who, after a personal tragedy, becomes a private investigator. Pearce has a rumpled, wry, sexiness as Jack. In this season he is separated from his reporter girlfriend (fabulous Marta Dusseldorp). He investigates a series of mysteries around a college that invites disadvantaged students from other countries who have a habit of disappearing, or dying under mysterious circumstances. The show crackles with suspense and humor, particularly Irish’s friendship with a shady racetrack promoter (hilarious Roy Billing) and his henchman (Aaron Pederson). I also love the sparsely attended dive bar he hangs out in, and the colorful characters that inhabit it. A sensational series.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (Scream Factory) Kim Henkel, who co-scripted the original Chainsaw Massacre directed this deranged sequel filmed as The Return Of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974, but the movie was shelved until years later to capitalize on the star recognition of-then-unknown leads-Renee Zelwegger and Matthew McConaughey. The film itself is about some unlucky prom-goers who get stranded on a remote dirt road in Texas and come upon the fearsome Chainsaw family. The released version was cut, especially missing an opening scene where Zelwegger is assaulted by her step-father in her bedroom as she dresses for the prom. There’s a nice, nasty humor to all of it, and an increasing feel of insanity to the psycho family, particularly McConaughey, wearing a mechanical, metal brace on one leg, who is totally off the wall, even giving his trademark “Alright, alright, alright.” Robert Jacks, who played Leatherface, adds a certain poignant quality to the cross-dressing rampaging monster. This enjoyably bizarre film gets a great Blu-ray release, which includes the Theatrical and Uncut Director’s Cut.
The Puppet Masters (Kino Lorber) A superior action-packed sci-fi film, well directed by Stuart Orme, about a spaceship that lands in the Midwest and soon infects the town with mind-controlling slugs that attach to the body and connect to a central intelligence that plans to take over the Earth. Donald Sutherland; his sexy son (Eric Thal), and a scientist (Julie Warner) are part of a Government group trying to thwart the invasion. Based on a novel by Robert A. Heinlein, this was given a low-budget treatment in 1958 called The Brain Eaters.This Blu-ray looks amazing, and, re-watching it, I forgot how suspenseful and good the movie was.
Mame (Warner Archive) Lucille Ball’s wrong-headed version of the Broadway musical based on Auntie Mame. Every time the camera cuts to Lucy the lens is coated in KY-jelly to soften her age. I remember seeing this movie stoned and thought I was going blind every time the screen got blurry with a close-up. A scene where Lucy wears a flesh-colored Santa mask and croaks out “We Need A Little Christmas” is scarier than the end of Psycho. Perversely, I love owning the pristine looking Blu-ray, though.
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (Scream Factory) This is the sequel to the notorious first film (which caused such protests that the film was yanked from theaters). And I have to admit I love this one so much more. It’s about Ricky (Eric Freeman), the brother of the Santa-dressed killer, who, now, is in an asylum being interviewed by a psychiatrist. The first 40 minutes is just a rehash of the first film, but then when it gets to Ricky’s story the movie suddenly goes bonkers. Most of the reason for the film’s cult success is musclebound, good-looking Eric Freeman who infuses his psycho-boy with such manic glee. A rampage down a suburban street screaming out “Garbage Day” as he guns down a man taking out the trash is maniacally funny. The exhaustive extras include a documentary about the making of the film that is almost as long as the actual movie.
Forty Guns (Criterion) Sam Fuller’s wonderfully perverse black & white western, which makes great use of the Cinemascope format. It stars Barbara Stanwyck as wealthy landowner Jessica Drummond, who travels with a posse of hired guns who terrorize the town of Tombstone, Arizona. Barry Sullivan plays U.S. Marshall Griff Bonell, who rides into town (with two brothers) attempting to arrest one of her gang for mail robbery. Filled with typically hard-boiled Fuller touches and with an ending that still makes my jaw drop even though I’ve seen the movie countless times. This always looked crummy on DVD, so I thank God for Criterion for this glorious restoration. The theme song references Stanwyck’s character as, “a high-riding woman with a whip.”
The Mangler (Scream Factory) A 4K restoration of the uncut negative of director Tobe Hooper’s 1995 film based about a Stephen King short story about a demonic sheet-folding machine at an industrial laundry in Maine. Robert Englund plays the fiendish owner of the factory which harbors a deadly secret connected to the wealthy members of the town, and blood sacrifices to the infernal machine.Ted Levine plays the dogged cop trying to figure it all out. Great art direction and an impressive-looking monster machine.
The Thing (From Another World) (Warner Archive) One of the great sci-fi films, set at an arctic American army base, where the officers find themselves fighting a frightening alien that they dug out of the ice and accidentally thawed out. Starring Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan and Gunsmoke’s James Arness as the seemingly indestructible creature (who is called “a human carrot”). With crackling, over-lapping dialogue, and a tough-talking woman (Sheridan), it’s obvious that the producer of the film Howard Hawks directed this instead of the man listed on the credits Christian Nyby. At a Chiller Convention I heard actor Kenneth Tobey confirm that Hawks did indeed direct the film. One of the rare examples of a movie whose remake (by John Carpenter) is equally exceptional and scary.
Maniac (Blue Underground) I remember how disturbing it was to see posters of William Lustig’s slasher classic in the NY subways at the time the film opened. Especially with the large crotch shot and bloody knife and woman’s scalp. It now is proudly framed in my kitchen, so I can be reminded daily (like the poster screams): “I warned you not to go out tonight!” The movie stars actor Joe Spinell as a psychopath who sleeps with mannequins and stalks the streets of Manhattan searching for female victims, scalping them and nailing the hair to his “dolls.” This gorgeous special edition is a new 4K restoration and includes the film’s soundtrack and scores of extras. The ultimate Christmas gift.