Mill Creek Entertainment Targets Oct. 6 For The DVD Release Of Monsters And The Movies They Inspired

Mill Creek Entertainment has a sweet Halloween-season promotion lined up for delivery to the DVD marketplace on Oct. 6.   So let us get to it …

First up, there’s a five-disc collection titled Monsters and the Movies They Inspired, which is anchored by award-winning documentary filmmaker Kevin R. Hershberger’s seven-part mini-series, The Origins of Horror’s Greatest Legends.

Hershberger covers the popular legends that have inspired so many of the cinema’s great horror treasures … this is broken down into seven 45-minute segments: “Vampires: From Folklore to Literature,” “Vampires: The Rise of Dracula,” “The Undead,” “The Spirit World,” “Demons,” “Witchcraft” and “Werewolves and Shapeshifter.” 

Now that you are in tune with the background of history’s most famous “monsters,” Mill Creek Entertainment continues the chills with seven classic feature films that exemplify these legends of horror put into action.   Included in the mix are director George A. Romero’s 1968 undead treasure, Night of the Living Dead, plus, there is Christopher Lee as Dracula in director Alan Gibson’s 1978 film, Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (aka: The Satanic Rites of Dracula), co-starring  Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Joanna Lumley (perhaps best known as Pasty in the Absolutely Fabulous television series) as Van Helsing’s daughter and the object of Dracula’s desires.

The other five films in the collection are the 1974 bus-ride-to-hell, The Devil’s Nightmare, the Bigfoot thriller, Snowbeast, starring Yvette Mimieux, Bo Svenson, Clint Walker and Robert Logan, the 1972 vampire thriller (with a twist), The Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman and two horror films starring the iconic Barbara Steele — The She-Beast and Nightmare Castle.

Wait, wait, wait, not done yet.   As a super-bonus, the five-disc DVD release of Monsters and the Movies They Inspired from Mill Creek Entertainment on Oct. 6 also includes as an extra bonus, the five-part mini-series titled Chasing Bigfoot.  Featuring first-hand encounters and research reports, the program is divided into segments variously titled, “The Nature of Bigfoot,” “Bigfoot Encounters,” “The Bigfoot Phenomenon,” “The Bigfoot Adventure Weekend” and “Bigfoot Research and Evidence.”

So, to recap, you get two full mini-series, seven classic horror films and the entire collection features Digital Copy … over 18 hours of thrills and chills!   Are you ready for this, the SRP (and that’s before discounts at retail) is just $19.98!

Also, on Oct. 6, for those just interested in the movies, Mill Creek Entertainment has the double-disc collection titled Monster Mashup Collection, which features the aforementioned seven films included in the Monsters and the Movies They Inspired collection.   This DVD release also includes Digital Copy.

 

 

 

 

The Good Fight: Season Four On DVD From Paramount Home Media On Sept. 22

It was a busy announcement week for Paramount Home Media … featuring new-to-DVD releases checking off boxes in a number of viewing categories.  

Leading the way on Sept. 22 is The Good Fight: Season Four, starring 15-time Emmy nominee Christine Baranski as attorney Diane Lockhart, along with Cush Jumbo and Delroy Lindo.   All seven episodes (the series was cut short during production … Covid-19, a familiar story) are included here as part of the double-disc DVD release.

The good news for The Good Fight is that in May of this year CBS All Access renewed the series for a fifth season … if you will remember, season four abruptly ended with Lockhart and company investigating the mysterious death of Jeffrey Epstein.   Perhaps Ghislaine Maxwell can be worked into the storyline during the next season.

Paramount Home Media will be teaming up with CBS Home Entertainment on Aug. 25 for the DVD debut of the Gunsmoke: Movie Collection.   This three-disc/three-film set includes the 1987 feature-length made-for-TV movie from director Vincent Eveety titled Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge, reuniting James Arness as (now retired) U.S. Marshall Matt Dillon and Amanda Blakes as the ever-resource Miss Kitty Russell.  

So successful was this “reunion” broadcast that three years later Matt Dillion returned in Gunsmoke: The Last Apache (1990) and that was followed by Gunsmoke: To the Last Man in 1992.   All three of these feature films are included in this collection.

Lastly, director Sean McNamara’s family-themed Mighty Oak, stars Janel Parrish (perhaps best known as Mona Vanderwaal in the Pretty Little Liars television series), as the sister of a tragically killed rock sensation.  She comes to believe that a ten-year old kid by the name of Oak Scoggins (Tommy Ragen in his film debut) is her reincarnated brother.

Mighty Oaks will be making its DVD debut on Sept. 8 and it comes complete with Digital Copy.

 

 

Full Moon Features Readies The DVD And Blu-ray Debut Of Daddy Draven's Weedjies: Halloween Night For Delivery On Oct. 13

Full Moon Features, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new horror entry destined for the Halloween promotional season which has franchise potential written all over it. 

This would be the Oct. 13 DVD and Blu-ray debut of director Danny Draven’s Weedjies: Halloweed Night, which is certainly an homage to Charles Band’s horror franchise series that was launched in 1984 with Ghoulies (followed by Ghoulies II in 1988, Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College in 1991 and concluding with Ghoulies IV in 1994).

It’s Halloween and three attractive and happening young women can’t believe their good fortune in landing premium digs in Las Vegas for their Halloween costume bash.   The lovely ladies are Dallas (Victoria Strange in her film debut), Madison (Brett Hargrave — Shake Off the World, All Good Things) and Frankie (Yo Ying — A Woman's Touch, Dead Bedrooms), who invite their friends and settle in for an evening of fun.

Among their guests — was she really on the list, no matter — is Madam Haze; the Baroness (Denise Milfort — Dead on Arrival, Roots), who actually owns the place, so maybe the too-good-to-be-true deal isn’t all it seems to be.   She talks the girls and their friend Claude (Johnny Lee) into playing a little game … a game of “Weed-G-Board.”   

You’ve probably already surmised that the Weedjies are creatures, like Ghoulies, that are unwittingly released by Dallas, Madison and Frankie, who at first seem to join the party, but their joy-joy blending in with the costume guests (aka: victim pool) doesn’t last long as the various sized Weedjies begin killing off the party guests in very creative ways.

It falls to the girls and Claude to undo the nasty of the Weed-G-Board before dawn … or it’s into the hellish world of the Baroness they will go, forever!   

 

Bonus goodies include a feature-length presentation of “The Complete Making of Weedjies,” a set tour with David DeCoteau — director of Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge, Puppet Master: Axis of Evil … and many more Full Moon Features — a pair of featurettes, “Puppeting with Gob-Lynn” and “Puppeting with Motorbreth,” and chat session with Medicated Pete and McRib Lady.

 

Bayview Entertainment Tabs Oct. 6 For The DVD Release Of Summer Fitness Bodydream By Aleksandra Samson

Bayview Entertainment says it’s time to get off of the couch, put down the cable remote, turn the DVD player on and get fit.   Really?   That can’t be any fun … much better to just veg and binge-watch show after show, movie after movie on TV.

But wait, when it comes to Aleksandra Samson, she makes her fitness classes, especially her Zumba classes, fun … every session feels like a party.   As a licensed Zumba and Zumba Gold instructor, Samson knows what she is doing and has a grand time doing it … so, maybe Bayview Entertainment has something on Oct. 6 that will get you off the couch and start the process of getting those unwanted pandemic pounds off.

Titled Summer Fitness Bodydream by Aleksandra Samson, this hour-plus fitness session is divided into 10 modules — from easy to advanced — that provide exercise focus for abs, legs, and more.   Get that perfect body … and in the process learn from Aleksandra Samson as she gives both coaching and professional advice.

 

 

Arrow Video Restores Director Nick Castle's The Last Starfighter For Blu-ray Release On Oct. 13

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 4K restoration — from the original 35mm camera negative — of director Nick Castle’s 1984 landmark sci-fi adventure, The Last Starfighter, lined up for release on Blu-ray on Oct. 13.

The year 1984 was a marvelous year for “below the radar” sci-fi films that would become, and we hate to use the word, “classics.”   Of course, there was the Hemdale Film Corporation production of director James Cameron’s The Terminator, which spawned a decades-long franchise.   It was released theatrically on the weekend before Halloween and … well, what can you say, amazing, brilliant, iconic (it’s a long list).  

A few weeks later, during the “dead period” just before Thanksgiving, Atlantic Releasing put out the limited budget masterpiece from writer/director Thom Eberhardt, Night of the Comet, starring Robert Beltran (who would go on to star as Star Trek: Voyager’s Commander Chakotay), Kelli Maroney (who got her start on the soap opera, Ryan’s Hope … and then came Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Chopping Mall … and more) and Catherine Mary Stewart, who also starred in (drum roll, please), The Last Starfighter.   Night of the Comet surprised everyone.

Kicking off this indie sci-fi cycle was the mid-July theatrical launch of The Last Starfighter, starring Lance Guest (Halloween II, Jaws: The Revenge, etc.), the aforementioned Catherine Mary Stewart (Weekend at Bernie’s, Reaper, etc.), Dan O'Herlihy (who was Oscar-nominated for Best Actor in 1954 for Robinson Crusoe, plus such films as RoboCop, 100 Rifles, Fail Safe, etc.) and Robert Preston as Centauri, in a role specifically written for him to mimic his 1962 performance as Harold Hill in The Music Man … this would be Preston’s last theatrical release.

Besides all three films being 1984 sci-fi gems, all three films had one other thing in common … they were all filmed in Los Angeles.

As to bonus goodies for The Last Starfighter, there are two commentary options — the first is an archival commentary featuring director Nick Castle (he teamed with John Carpenter on the script for Escape From New York … he would go to write and direct The Boy Who Could Fly and Tap), who is joined by production designer Ron Cobb (Conan the Barbarian, Leviathan); while the second is a newly-prepared commentary track featuring Mike White of “The Last Projection Booth” podcast.

Other bonuses include the four-part documentary titled Crossing the Frontier: The Making of The Last Starfighter, the featurette titled “Heroes of the Screen” and more to be added between now and the Oct. 13 street date.

 

 

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Selects Aug. 25 For The Blu-ray Debut Of The Big Parade

The Million Dollar Theatre in downtown Los Angeles was the place where Hollywood premiered its prestigious films during the early days of the Silent Era.   Opened by Sid Grauman in 1918, it sits directly across the street from the landmark Bradbury Building.   Both remain landmarks to this day.

By 1922, the “Hollywood” studios wanted to hold these lavish premieres “closer to home,” so they prevailed upon Grauman to build both The Egyptian Theatre (1922) and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (1927) for future major studio premieres.   He did (and, as they say, the rest is history), which brings us to the Blu-ray release news from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment this week.

On Nov. 5, 1925, The Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. held the world premiere of director King Video’s WWI masterpiece, The Big Parade, starring John Gilbert.   Those attending could not have guessed that the battlefields of France, including Belleau Wood, were filmed in nearby Elysian Park and the sprawling Griffith Park.   Their respective transitions from peaceful parks to battlefields, with all of the carnage, was nothing short of breathtaking. 

By all standards, The Big Parade is one of the greatest silent films ever made.  Warner Bros. announced this past week that a new 4K digital restoration — from the rediscovered original camera negative — will be ready for Blu-ray on Aug. 25.

We believe this will be the complete 151-minute presentation (the film was edited after the Hollywood debut to accommodate exhibitors looking for an “extra” presentation each day … 124 and 130 minutes did the trick).   So important was this film, that the Astor Theatre in New York City ran it continuously for two solid years!!!

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Picks Oct. 20 For The 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack Debut Of The Back To The Future: The Ultimate Trilogy

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will be launching a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack special edition of director Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future trilogy on Oct. 20.

This is a seven-disc collection, featuring 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray copies of each of the three films, plus a bonus disc containing over one hour’s worth of newly prepared content. 

These new 4K film restorations of the Back to the Future trilogy come loaded with bonus goodies, so let’s get those first.   All three films include commentary from producers Bob Gale (who was Oscar-nominated for his Back to the Future script) and Neil Canton, plus there are featurettes galore, outtakes, photo galleries, behind-the-scenes presentations and all three films include a “Q&A Commentary” option featuring director Robert Zemeckis and producer Bob Gale.

Now to the new bonus features on the extra disc, there is audition footage of the likes of Ben Stiller, Kyra Sedgwick, Jon Cryer, Billy Zane, Peter DeLuise and C. Thomas Howell, a sneak preview of a Back to the Future: The Musical, a tour of the films’ surviving props and memorabilia … and more.