rhett
12-31-2008, 07:00 PM
What a year it’s been! As tumultuous as the economy, the home video scene saw its share of ups and downs throughout 2008. It started off bleak, with NoShame officially gone from Region 1, Code Red without a distributor, Blue Underground still comatose and Media Blasters with a vacant slate.
http://horrordigital.com/reviews/pictures/2008.jpg
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/unseen/unseen_shot14s.jpg (http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/unseen/unseen_shot14l.jpg)What a year it’s been! As tumultuous as the economy, the home video scene saw its share of ups and downs throughout 2008. It started off bleak, with NoShame officially gone from Region 1, Code Red without a distributor, Blue Underground still comatose and Media Blasters with a vacant slate. With all the reports of the DVD market being oversaturated, it seemed as if horror was in for a brutal year. Thankfully, though, the genre rebounded while the economy seemingly went south (isn’t that how it works, though, with the best horror always coming from times of hardship?).
The big studios stayed mostly away from catalog horror this year, with MGM and their “Finally!” inducing special editions for Child’s Play and Pumpkinhead and CBS and their debuting of Friday the 13th – The Series the notable exceptions. Instead, it was up to the little guys to pick up the slack, and with many of them M.I.A., the responsibility fell on an elite few. Blue Underground seemed to be back on course with a surprise special edition of The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, but sadly that was their only original release for the year. Who picked up the slack instead? Code Red signed with BCI, and together they both had their best year yet, with BCI releasing some great special editions as well as a number of great bargain offerings, and Code Red releasing special edition after special edition. Anchor Bay was old reliable with a number of nice upgrades to their catalogue and a few new surprises like Phantasm: OblIVion and End of the Line. Grindhouse finally put out a couple of much requested discs, Severin delivered a big slate of small obscurities and Dark Sky still pushed quality despite a pared down slate. Those were the heroes who made the fall season, and the year in general, a satisfying one for horror fans.
And already there’s great hope for 2009. There’s an official release of that DVD that would never be official, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, more Grindhouse, a ton of new Friday the 13th items and My Bloody Valentine uncut. It’s rosy skies ahead for 2009, but here are the top ten discs this year that got us to this point.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/lmd/lmd_fronts.jpg
10. Love Me Deadly (1973) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=694) Media Blasters
The fact that this one even came out is cause enough for inclusion here on this year’s list. Love Me Deadly is saccharine melodrama by most accounts, fine, but it’s necrophilia melodrama, and that has to count for something. Truth be told, it’s actually an affecting drama about a woman with a “deadly” addiction, and like it could only be done in the seventies, this movie doesn’t beat around the bush. Mary Wilcox (who’d also memorably turn up again this year in Dark Sky’s Psychic Killer) gives a literally bare performance, injecting compassionate life into a film often shrouded in death. Media Blasters’ DVD (a leftover from their Code Red partnership) is good enough in the audio and video departments, presenting the film in the correct mix and ratio it was barely shown in during its brief theatrical run. The rare commentary from producer Buck Edwards is a gem, both candid and amusing. That he died only weeks after recording the extra adds even more chilling allure to this heartfelt ode to love after death.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/phennew/phennew_fronts.jpg
9. Phenomena (1984) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=673) Anchor Bay
After successfully upgrading a number of old classics like Phantasm, Hellraiser and The Evil Dead last year, Anchor Bay once again continued their prestige “Anchor Bay Collection” line for 2008. We got worthy double dips of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Tenebre and Phantasm: OblIVion. The best upgrade, though, was Phenomena, doing away with the old non-anamorphic LaserDisc transfer that made up the previous disc - now a whopping eight years old! With all the crying induced by Argento’s ho hum return to theaters, Mother of Tears, it was nice to revisit one of the less celebrated works from his golden age. Add in a nice new featurettes and all the same great extras from the original release, and this was one of the true safe bets of the year.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/finalexam/finalexam_fronts.jpg
8. Final Exam (1980) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=686) BCI
It was a great year for us slasher fans, with big releases of fan favorites, but for me the coup of the year was BCI’s Final Exam. Light on gore but high on frat hijinks and old fashioned slasher sincerity, it’s the perfect time capsule for what the slasher movement was all about. The transfer is good and anamorphic, and the artwork actually managed to build on (rather than butcher) what the original art was all about. The biggest delight, though, were the three new interviews with the main cast. Catching up again with Courtney, Janet and, best of all, Radish, was to me the treat of the year. A special note must be given to the Nortons at Code Red for working so hard to track down these forgotten stars to once again address fans after years of obscurity. Sure, it’s nice to catch up with Linda Blair and Linnea Quigley (more on that later), but give me Joel S. Rice, Bobbie Bresee, Aleisa Shirley and John Wintergate a hundred times over first.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/pictures/white.jpg
7. White Dog (1982) Criterion
Sam Fuller’s masterpiece about American intolerance was hardly tolerated at all when it was dumped to theaters in 1982. Shelved and forgotten, it seemed like White Dog would stay lost in the same way that his Shark! would. The only difference, though, is that this is an animal flick worth salvaging from the pound, with its racist allegory housed in the subconscious of a seemingly innocent German Shepherd. It’s both brutally raw and emotionally devastating, a one-two punch that America’s premier pulpist was known for. Criterion had released a number of his classics before, but this December’s release of White Dog is no doubt their grandest achievement, allowing this forgotten bit of humanitarian horror to finally seek reappraisal. With new essays and interviews, and a restored anamorphic transfer, this is a disc that matches the bite of the film itself.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/cplay/cplay_fronts.jpg
6. Child's Play: Chucky's 20th Birthday Edition (1989) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=684) MGM
A special edition for Chucky’s first outing seems like one of the biggest no brainers in all of horror. The Good Guys at MGM must have been without batteries for the nine years in between this new special edition and the original bare and open matte offering. It was worth the wait, though, with old Charles Lee Ray getting the perfect dolling up for his 20th anniversary. A restored anamorphic transfer, a 5.1 surround remix, and hours of extras, including commentaries, featurettes, convention Q & As and even some in character musings from Chucky himself. For fans, there is no better tribute to the most notorious of plastic menaces.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/unseen/unseen_fronts.jpg
5. The Unseen (1980) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=703) Code Red
Although they max out at fifth place this year, the real stars of 2008 were Code Red. After five memorable releases in 2006 and 2007, it seemed as if this brotherly duo with a penchant for no budget American film from the seventies and eighties was done for. They cancelled a partnership with Media Blasters, and their entire catalog suddenly disappeared from their website. Thankfully, though, after months of dormancy, they came back swinging for the second half of 2008 with eight films of their own and a number of stragglers for other companies. They were behind Shriek Show’s quality offerings of The Chilling, The Curious Case of the Campus Corpse, Killer’s Delight and this list’s Love Me Deadly. As well, they worked behind the scenes on a number of top notch BCI product, including Mausoleum and two other films on this list, Final Exam and Savage Streets. On their own, though, their best release was this crazy Psycho-esque slasher, The Unseen. The first half was slow, but man, the second half erupts in one crazy battle of the bizarre between the king of weird, Sydney Lassick and a diaper wearing Stephen Furst. The transfer is serviceable, but it’s the plethora of uninhibited extras that makeup the two discs that really give the disc its worth. In a time when so many extras seem to cater to shallow congratulation or pithy political correctness, thank God for the unabridged extras from Code Red. On The Unseen we get some pretty nasty testimonials from a number of genre veterans, in the process revealing many of the cruel and unspoken truths of this crazy industry. It’s with these extras that Code Red is creating a rock turning legacy.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/pictures/mist.jpg
4. The Mist (2007) Dimension
With Barack Obama and all his recession busting hope elected this year, it feels like it’s been ages since all the Bush hypothesizing of Frank Darabont’s masterful The Mist. It’s tough to believe that the DVD hit here this past March, but it’s a release that’s not easily forgotten. A fine testament to the triumph of a director’s vision, this two-disc release featured both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut. What’s notable about the director’s cut? Black and white, baby! With increased contrast and an absence of color, the film changed from a harsh, gritty thriller to a tragic and classic clash of light and dark. Of course there are a ton of extras and the audio and video are all reference quality, but it’s that ability to see the film anew and to see Darabont able to talk about that new vision that make it such a great home video experience.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/piecesse/piecesse_fronts.jpg
3. Pieces (1982) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=720) Grindhouse
So it didn’t take as long as the Child’s Play special edition, but Grindhouse’s Pieces DVD was a more agonizing wait since it had been announced several years before finally reaching completion. Thankfully, though, the wait was worth it, as this packed two-discer made for the perfect Halloween fodder this past October. The transfer is pretty stunning – going from the old Diamond DVD is a leap in quality comparable to a double feature starting with Satan’s Blade and ending with Halloween. The extras, though, are again the clincher. Two discs filled with thorough retrospectives from memorable minds like director Juan Piquer and full-time heavy Paul L. Smith. Then there’s that superb surround track that puts you right there at the Vine Theater Hollywood experience. Grindhouse has confirmed that Cat in the Brain is coming from them soon next year, but I’d wait the handful of years I did for this sucker if the release is as notable as Pieces.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/savage/savage_fronts.jpg
2. Savage Streets (1984) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=687) BCI
If film gave me nothing else this year, then at least it gave me the quote “Too bad you’re not double-jointed…because if you were you’d be able to bend over and kiss your ass goodbye!” Savage Streets is the trash classic that has it all – wonderful one liners, Linda Blair smoking naked in a bathtub before her night of vengeance and some really harsh bits of rape and revenge. Danny Steinmann’s direction keeps the pace at a fever pitch, and John Farnham’s big hair ballads sustain that colorful energy throughout. It’s justice for all in the extras, too, with interviews with all the main cast, from Linda Blair and Linnea Quigley to Johnny Venocur and Robert Dryer. Danny Steinmann even comes out of the rock he’s been living under to give a top notch commentary with the current king of DVD extras, Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures. One new anamorphic transfer, two discs, three commentaries and five interviews later, BCI’s stellar release here ensures this will be on my cult movie rotation for years to come.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/fod/fod_fronts.jpg
1. Faces of Deah: 30th Anniversary Edition (1978) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=702) Gorgon
There were a lot of great releases this year, but none caught me off guard more than Gorgon’s Faces of Death. It was a series that had died along with VHS, but on its 30th anniversary, Gorgon, and specifically Red Shirt Pictures, gave that film all about death an amazing new life - in 1080p High Definition, no less! As a showcase for the power and importance of home video extra material, the special features here take precedence even over the film itself. The extras, consisting of featurettes, deleted scenes, outtakes and an important commentary with the director, finally reveal the myths behind one of the grandest cinematic hoaxes in all of film history. If DVD and Blu-ray are designed to be archival formats to help forever preserve the integrity of the arts, then there need to be more releases like this – ones that so actively engage with filmmaking and film history to foster a better understanding of the power of the medium. I’ve always vaunted that seeing films projected in a theater on 35mm is better than home video, but this Blu-ray of Faces of Death has forced me to asterix that statement. Watching the movie beautifully restored here is one thing, but experiencing all the engaging extras immediately afterwards is symbiotic. This is the first home video release where the special features aren’t just extra…they’re vital.
Previous Top Tens:
2007 (http://horrordigital.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=35673)
2006 (http://horrordigital.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=32276)
2005 (http://horrordigital.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=28052)
http://horrordigital.com/reviews/pictures/2008.jpg
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/unseen/unseen_shot14s.jpg (http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/unseen/unseen_shot14l.jpg)What a year it’s been! As tumultuous as the economy, the home video scene saw its share of ups and downs throughout 2008. It started off bleak, with NoShame officially gone from Region 1, Code Red without a distributor, Blue Underground still comatose and Media Blasters with a vacant slate. With all the reports of the DVD market being oversaturated, it seemed as if horror was in for a brutal year. Thankfully, though, the genre rebounded while the economy seemingly went south (isn’t that how it works, though, with the best horror always coming from times of hardship?).
The big studios stayed mostly away from catalog horror this year, with MGM and their “Finally!” inducing special editions for Child’s Play and Pumpkinhead and CBS and their debuting of Friday the 13th – The Series the notable exceptions. Instead, it was up to the little guys to pick up the slack, and with many of them M.I.A., the responsibility fell on an elite few. Blue Underground seemed to be back on course with a surprise special edition of The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, but sadly that was their only original release for the year. Who picked up the slack instead? Code Red signed with BCI, and together they both had their best year yet, with BCI releasing some great special editions as well as a number of great bargain offerings, and Code Red releasing special edition after special edition. Anchor Bay was old reliable with a number of nice upgrades to their catalogue and a few new surprises like Phantasm: OblIVion and End of the Line. Grindhouse finally put out a couple of much requested discs, Severin delivered a big slate of small obscurities and Dark Sky still pushed quality despite a pared down slate. Those were the heroes who made the fall season, and the year in general, a satisfying one for horror fans.
And already there’s great hope for 2009. There’s an official release of that DVD that would never be official, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, more Grindhouse, a ton of new Friday the 13th items and My Bloody Valentine uncut. It’s rosy skies ahead for 2009, but here are the top ten discs this year that got us to this point.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/lmd/lmd_fronts.jpg
10. Love Me Deadly (1973) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=694) Media Blasters
The fact that this one even came out is cause enough for inclusion here on this year’s list. Love Me Deadly is saccharine melodrama by most accounts, fine, but it’s necrophilia melodrama, and that has to count for something. Truth be told, it’s actually an affecting drama about a woman with a “deadly” addiction, and like it could only be done in the seventies, this movie doesn’t beat around the bush. Mary Wilcox (who’d also memorably turn up again this year in Dark Sky’s Psychic Killer) gives a literally bare performance, injecting compassionate life into a film often shrouded in death. Media Blasters’ DVD (a leftover from their Code Red partnership) is good enough in the audio and video departments, presenting the film in the correct mix and ratio it was barely shown in during its brief theatrical run. The rare commentary from producer Buck Edwards is a gem, both candid and amusing. That he died only weeks after recording the extra adds even more chilling allure to this heartfelt ode to love after death.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/phennew/phennew_fronts.jpg
9. Phenomena (1984) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=673) Anchor Bay
After successfully upgrading a number of old classics like Phantasm, Hellraiser and The Evil Dead last year, Anchor Bay once again continued their prestige “Anchor Bay Collection” line for 2008. We got worthy double dips of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Tenebre and Phantasm: OblIVion. The best upgrade, though, was Phenomena, doing away with the old non-anamorphic LaserDisc transfer that made up the previous disc - now a whopping eight years old! With all the crying induced by Argento’s ho hum return to theaters, Mother of Tears, it was nice to revisit one of the less celebrated works from his golden age. Add in a nice new featurettes and all the same great extras from the original release, and this was one of the true safe bets of the year.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/finalexam/finalexam_fronts.jpg
8. Final Exam (1980) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=686) BCI
It was a great year for us slasher fans, with big releases of fan favorites, but for me the coup of the year was BCI’s Final Exam. Light on gore but high on frat hijinks and old fashioned slasher sincerity, it’s the perfect time capsule for what the slasher movement was all about. The transfer is good and anamorphic, and the artwork actually managed to build on (rather than butcher) what the original art was all about. The biggest delight, though, were the three new interviews with the main cast. Catching up again with Courtney, Janet and, best of all, Radish, was to me the treat of the year. A special note must be given to the Nortons at Code Red for working so hard to track down these forgotten stars to once again address fans after years of obscurity. Sure, it’s nice to catch up with Linda Blair and Linnea Quigley (more on that later), but give me Joel S. Rice, Bobbie Bresee, Aleisa Shirley and John Wintergate a hundred times over first.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/pictures/white.jpg
7. White Dog (1982) Criterion
Sam Fuller’s masterpiece about American intolerance was hardly tolerated at all when it was dumped to theaters in 1982. Shelved and forgotten, it seemed like White Dog would stay lost in the same way that his Shark! would. The only difference, though, is that this is an animal flick worth salvaging from the pound, with its racist allegory housed in the subconscious of a seemingly innocent German Shepherd. It’s both brutally raw and emotionally devastating, a one-two punch that America’s premier pulpist was known for. Criterion had released a number of his classics before, but this December’s release of White Dog is no doubt their grandest achievement, allowing this forgotten bit of humanitarian horror to finally seek reappraisal. With new essays and interviews, and a restored anamorphic transfer, this is a disc that matches the bite of the film itself.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/cplay/cplay_fronts.jpg
6. Child's Play: Chucky's 20th Birthday Edition (1989) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=684) MGM
A special edition for Chucky’s first outing seems like one of the biggest no brainers in all of horror. The Good Guys at MGM must have been without batteries for the nine years in between this new special edition and the original bare and open matte offering. It was worth the wait, though, with old Charles Lee Ray getting the perfect dolling up for his 20th anniversary. A restored anamorphic transfer, a 5.1 surround remix, and hours of extras, including commentaries, featurettes, convention Q & As and even some in character musings from Chucky himself. For fans, there is no better tribute to the most notorious of plastic menaces.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/unseen/unseen_fronts.jpg
5. The Unseen (1980) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=703) Code Red
Although they max out at fifth place this year, the real stars of 2008 were Code Red. After five memorable releases in 2006 and 2007, it seemed as if this brotherly duo with a penchant for no budget American film from the seventies and eighties was done for. They cancelled a partnership with Media Blasters, and their entire catalog suddenly disappeared from their website. Thankfully, though, after months of dormancy, they came back swinging for the second half of 2008 with eight films of their own and a number of stragglers for other companies. They were behind Shriek Show’s quality offerings of The Chilling, The Curious Case of the Campus Corpse, Killer’s Delight and this list’s Love Me Deadly. As well, they worked behind the scenes on a number of top notch BCI product, including Mausoleum and two other films on this list, Final Exam and Savage Streets. On their own, though, their best release was this crazy Psycho-esque slasher, The Unseen. The first half was slow, but man, the second half erupts in one crazy battle of the bizarre between the king of weird, Sydney Lassick and a diaper wearing Stephen Furst. The transfer is serviceable, but it’s the plethora of uninhibited extras that makeup the two discs that really give the disc its worth. In a time when so many extras seem to cater to shallow congratulation or pithy political correctness, thank God for the unabridged extras from Code Red. On The Unseen we get some pretty nasty testimonials from a number of genre veterans, in the process revealing many of the cruel and unspoken truths of this crazy industry. It’s with these extras that Code Red is creating a rock turning legacy.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/pictures/mist.jpg
4. The Mist (2007) Dimension
With Barack Obama and all his recession busting hope elected this year, it feels like it’s been ages since all the Bush hypothesizing of Frank Darabont’s masterful The Mist. It’s tough to believe that the DVD hit here this past March, but it’s a release that’s not easily forgotten. A fine testament to the triumph of a director’s vision, this two-disc release featured both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut. What’s notable about the director’s cut? Black and white, baby! With increased contrast and an absence of color, the film changed from a harsh, gritty thriller to a tragic and classic clash of light and dark. Of course there are a ton of extras and the audio and video are all reference quality, but it’s that ability to see the film anew and to see Darabont able to talk about that new vision that make it such a great home video experience.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/piecesse/piecesse_fronts.jpg
3. Pieces (1982) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=720) Grindhouse
So it didn’t take as long as the Child’s Play special edition, but Grindhouse’s Pieces DVD was a more agonizing wait since it had been announced several years before finally reaching completion. Thankfully, though, the wait was worth it, as this packed two-discer made for the perfect Halloween fodder this past October. The transfer is pretty stunning – going from the old Diamond DVD is a leap in quality comparable to a double feature starting with Satan’s Blade and ending with Halloween. The extras, though, are again the clincher. Two discs filled with thorough retrospectives from memorable minds like director Juan Piquer and full-time heavy Paul L. Smith. Then there’s that superb surround track that puts you right there at the Vine Theater Hollywood experience. Grindhouse has confirmed that Cat in the Brain is coming from them soon next year, but I’d wait the handful of years I did for this sucker if the release is as notable as Pieces.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/savage/savage_fronts.jpg
2. Savage Streets (1984) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=687) BCI
If film gave me nothing else this year, then at least it gave me the quote “Too bad you’re not double-jointed…because if you were you’d be able to bend over and kiss your ass goodbye!” Savage Streets is the trash classic that has it all – wonderful one liners, Linda Blair smoking naked in a bathtub before her night of vengeance and some really harsh bits of rape and revenge. Danny Steinmann’s direction keeps the pace at a fever pitch, and John Farnham’s big hair ballads sustain that colorful energy throughout. It’s justice for all in the extras, too, with interviews with all the main cast, from Linda Blair and Linnea Quigley to Johnny Venocur and Robert Dryer. Danny Steinmann even comes out of the rock he’s been living under to give a top notch commentary with the current king of DVD extras, Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures. One new anamorphic transfer, two discs, three commentaries and five interviews later, BCI’s stellar release here ensures this will be on my cult movie rotation for years to come.
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/fod/fod_fronts.jpg
1. Faces of Deah: 30th Anniversary Edition (1978) (http://horrordigital.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=702) Gorgon
There were a lot of great releases this year, but none caught me off guard more than Gorgon’s Faces of Death. It was a series that had died along with VHS, but on its 30th anniversary, Gorgon, and specifically Red Shirt Pictures, gave that film all about death an amazing new life - in 1080p High Definition, no less! As a showcase for the power and importance of home video extra material, the special features here take precedence even over the film itself. The extras, consisting of featurettes, deleted scenes, outtakes and an important commentary with the director, finally reveal the myths behind one of the grandest cinematic hoaxes in all of film history. If DVD and Blu-ray are designed to be archival formats to help forever preserve the integrity of the arts, then there need to be more releases like this – ones that so actively engage with filmmaking and film history to foster a better understanding of the power of the medium. I’ve always vaunted that seeing films projected in a theater on 35mm is better than home video, but this Blu-ray of Faces of Death has forced me to asterix that statement. Watching the movie beautifully restored here is one thing, but experiencing all the engaging extras immediately afterwards is symbiotic. This is the first home video release where the special features aren’t just extra…they’re vital.
Previous Top Tens:
2007 (http://horrordigital.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=35673)
2006 (http://horrordigital.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=32276)
2005 (http://horrordigital.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=28052)