Hey folks, Harry here with the latest from my DVD PICKS & PEEKS column. Lots of crazy weird horror here this Halloween edition. Hope you enjoy the list, some obscure coolness is here. As always, clicking on the titles or the pics will take you to Amazon where you can learn more on each title, and if you’re intrigued enough – you can purchase the title, and at the same time support this column’s efforts to let you know about the coolness that abounds. Enjoy and have a fun Halloween this week!

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: The Plan

Pretty good. Better than RAZOR, but nowhere near as good as most of the series’ actual episodes. At least to me. Looks great in 1080p, but if you’re a BSG geek – you’ve ordered this already. The one thing that is VASTLY superior over the series are the fx – but then… computers seem to get sharper and sharper with effects. You’ll notice that here!

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS

Incredibly profitable mildly amusing junk that apparently works for some segment of the audience.

TINKER BELL AND THE LOST TREASURE

The last Tinker Bell CG film annoyed the shit out of me. I think it was the notion of giving Tink an origin – and a voice. That said, this was much much much better. I put this on while Yoko and I were cleaning for a party – and it absolutely stopped Yoko dead in her tracks. She’s a “Disney Princess Geek” and it hypnotized her. How’d it play for me? Well, it has a story, the graphics are kinda beautiful… and the battle with the rats is kinda scary and downright creepy. If you have a daughter, do not even hesitate in picking this up. They’ll love it.

MONTY PYTHON: ALMOST THE TRUTH

It is my understanding that this is airing on IFC, but I haven’t seen it yet – but it sounds like something I’d like to check out. I’ve always loved Monty Python - Have any of you seen this? Worth picking up?

THE PRISONER: THE COMPLETE SERIES (Blu Ray)

Until I got this set, I’d never sat down and watched the whole series. I’d seen an odd episode here or there, but I never could make sense of it. It seemed they never could keep an actor as Number 2. Well, watching this on Blu-Ray… I get it. Not only that, but earlier tonight I took a look at rough cuts for the first 3 episodes of the new PRISONER. And man. All the charm, wit, style, uniqueness and power seem to be completely drained out of it. That said, the new series doesn’t seem to be doing anything like the story we have here. There was something that Number 2 was seemingly searching for – in this new show – it seems they might be in a different dimension. But the original show was just flatly brilliant. McGoohan played #6 with a flair, a dashing derring do. You see him thinking, analyzing, looking for weaknesses and opportunities. It is brilliant. Here’s the special features:

Newly remixed 5.1 surround sound for all 17 episodes (in addition to the original mono tracks). 'Don’t Knock Yourself Out': Feature-length documentary chronicling the production of THE PRISONER, told by those involved in its creation; Two Brand-New Featurettes: 'The Pink Prisoner' and 'You Make Sure it Fits!'; Promo for AMC’s THE PRISONER Miniseries; Newly restored original edit of 'Arrival' with an optional music-only soundtrack featuring Wilfred Josephs’ complete and abandoned score; Original edit of 'The Chimes of Big Ben'; Production crew audio commentaries on seven episodes; Trailers for all episodes; Archive textless material, including the title sequence with clean ! themes by Ron Grainer, Wilfred Josephs and Robert Farnon; Commercial break bumpers; Image Archive with over 1200 stills; Production Paperwork Archive, featuring scripts, call sheets and press releases

ORPHAN

If you like Evil Children films… and that’s such a great genre… then you’ll probably like this film even if it does get a bit outlandish and silly. But, I do like evil children. I actually prefer the special feature on EVIL CHILDREN in cinema. Fun little featurette.

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (Blu Ray)

This could be a leading indicator of the end of the world… Cuz not only do we have NIGHT OF THE CREEPS on home video, but BLU RAY!!! And it is the first thing I want to get tomorrow. I didn’t get sent a copy to preview for y’all… but this is the Blu Ray Horror film that I want to watch before Halloween this year! Yippee! Badass Tom Atkins!!! If you buy 1 horror film on Blu Ray this season – this is the horror film to buy!!! Wonderful film!

STARGATE 15th Anniversary (Blu Ray)

I didn’t get sent this one either. And I wondered if they were just repackaging the title, cuz this is already out on Blu, but it seems they have done a much better job on this Blu. There’s both the director’s cut and the original theatrical cut. Lossless Audio. There’s an audio commentary by Emmerich & Devlin. 3 new featurettes and more. So if you love STARGATE this is a better disc than what you got before. And yes, they do suck for putting out an inferior disc to begin with.

Z (Criterion Collection)

Academy Award winner in 1970’s Best Foreign Film category, Costa-Gavras’ Z is just a brilliant way to kick off a splurge of 70’s Brilliant Film watching – and Criterion did a great job with this DVD. I just wish it were a Blu Ray. One of the greatest Political Thrillers of all time. Right there with ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, PARALLAX VIEW, 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR and their like. Brilliant at every level. Here’s what Criterion has put together as a package for this film:
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by cinematographer Raoul Coutard
• Audio commentary featuring film historian Peter Cowie
• New interviews with Costa-Gavras and Coutard
• Archival interviews with Costa-Gavras; producer-actor Jacques Perrin; actors Yves Montand, Irène Papas, and Jean-Louis Trintignant; and Vassilis Vassilikos, author of the book Z
• Theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Armond White

Luis Bunuel’s DEATH IN THE GARDEN

I love 53 year old films that are absolutely brand new to me. This is an excellent double feature for that WAGES OF FEAR Criterion Blu Ray you have. It isn’t as great as that film. In fact it isn’t near that level, but watching it first, it’s a great lead in to that South American world and look. This involves mining and being pursued through a jungle. Contrary to the cover, this isn’t a black and white film, but a lovely color film. Yes, it is subtitled. I was quite happy with this film.

Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960’s Vol. 2

I really do like these eclectic mixes of cartoons from the Sixties. Here’s what you get on this latest edition:

Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero: Attack from Out of Space/Rhom, Super Criminal/The Eye of Ramapoor


Peter Potamus: Fe Fi Fo Fun


Flintstones: The Flintstones Flyer


The Porky Pig Show: Scaredy Cat/Baton Bunny/Feather Dusted


Frankenstein Jr. & The Impossibles: The Shocking Electric Monster/The Bubbler


Adventures of Aquaman: Menace of the Blanc Manta/The Rampaging Reptile-Men/The Return of Nepto


Herculoid: The Beaked People/The Raider Apes


Space Ghost/Dino Boy: The Heat Thing/The Worm People/Zorak


Superman: The Force Phantom


The Jetsons: A Date with Jet Screamer


The Road Runner Show: Beep Beep/Satan's Waitin/Chili con Carne


Magilla Gorilla: Gridiron Gorilla


Tom & Jerry Show: No Bones About It/An Ill Wind/Beach Bully

Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970’s Vol. 2

Same thing – only from the Seventies. This is my childhood – and yes, I’m nostalgic for it. Here’s what you get:

Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch: Keep Your Keeper


New Adventures of Gilligan: Off Limits


Sea Lab 2020: Deep Threat


Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan: The Mardi Gras Caper


Shazzan: The Living Island / Master of the Thieves


Yogi's Gang: Mr. Bigot


Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour: For Scent-Imental Reasons/Stop, Look and Hasten, Hare-Way to the Stars/Duck! Rabbit, Duck!


Valley of the Dinosaurs: Forbidden Fruit


Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape; Show #1 No Way Stowaway / That Was No Idol… / The Ski Bunny / The All American Ape / Stay Awake Or Else


Banana Splits Adventure Hour: Joning the Knights/The littlest Musketeer/"Danger Island"


Inch High Private Eye: Diamonds are a Crook's Best Friend


New Adventures of Batman and Robin: Sweet Joke on Gotham City

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: The Second Season

You want a Halloween Marathon? You could do a lot worse than to just work your way through the Second Season of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE. This was my contemporary horror series to my High School years. It came on at like 2am and sometimes it gave me some pretty serious nightmares. And I had seen most badass horror films available at that time. Its just, this series had great fun actors, and it was adapted from a lot of great material. So if you’re like me, this reminds you of the heyday of 80s horror. If you were born after this –you totally need to check it out!

THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE (Blu Ray)

I’d never heard of this title, but I had seen the film, under its other title… LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE. This film is slow, but it is atmospheric, creepy and the zombies… they’re very stark and impressionistically harrowing. Spanish director Jorge Grau gets it. He gets that Zombies are scary, because they’re the living dead. And they’re coming for YOU. And that’s unnatural and creepy. And then there’s just the little fact that this thing is gorgeous on Blu Ray. Spanish Horror film blood on Blu Ray has never been so richly red. I love that we can see films like this one on Blu.

BLACK DEVIL DOLL

I don’t have this, don’t know anything about it, but look at that box. Read all that stuff. But dammit… I want you to look at this NSFW trailer:

Doesn’t that look like the greatest fucking thing on planet Earth? This could be the pinnacle of civilization! Or there's the unrated totally unsafe for work 720p version of the trailer: Here!!!

LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN (Blu Ray)

A very well made Documentary on the life of HP Lovecraft with folks like Guillermo Del Toro, Neil Gaiman, John Carpenter and Stuart Gordon chiming in. The DVD is currently out of stock at Amazon, but for those that lovers of Lovecraft this is something to educate your friends with – and you’ll enjoy it too.

FEAR(S) OF THE DARK

Want Arty Fears this Halloween? Well, FEAR(S) OF THE DARK is probably what you’d want of this week’s releases. I’m fond of all the segments, but frankly… CHARLES BURNS’ segment is something of a revelation. Its so good. So so soooo good. Burns’ illustration style in animation form is like a nightmare of its own. I love it. And the Dogs. Jesus. The Dogs are scary as fuck. Love this.

THE ASPHYX

A really great horror film. 2.35:1 as shot by David Lean’s god like cinematographer, Freddie Young. This isn’t in your face horror, it’s intellectual, thought provoking and subtly fearful film. Saw this ages ago and it was missing a good 10 minutes and was Full Screen VHS. This was a vast improvement. Remastered and gorgeous. Wonderful horror film from the 70s. Beloved by the older horror loving crowd. You deserve to find out why.

NIGHT OF DEATH!

An early Eighties French Horror film with a performance by Michel Flavius that you will not soon forget. Then there’s the naked form of Charlotte De Turckeim – which is lovingly transferred to DVD. Very few people know about this film, till this release. But if you like BUBBA HO-TEP and Old Folks Home Horror…. And Paul Bartel Black Humor… you’ll dig the shit out of this. It surprised me.

JIN WON KIM’S THE BUTCHER

Ok, I get it. You want crazy ass Asian Horror for Halloween, well this week’s list has that too! But if you want to see a Korean horror film that is as gorey and disturbing as the French mastergorepiece INSIDE and the bugnuts beautifully fucked up MARTYRS – then this may be for you. This isn’t just a gore fest though, it is something that wants to curl it’s way between your ears and fuck with your brain – and it does that quite effectively… like most Korean films I have seen.

EVIL FACE

Ok – so Klaus Kinski plays a medical student who is in love with a formerly beautiful woman whose face got all kinds of fucked up. He’s trying to give her beauty back by grafting beautiful flesh from other beautiful women onto her face. Yeah. You want to see this too!

HANNA D: THE GIRL FROM VONDEL PARK

Ok… So you want something horrifying that isn’t a blood and guts fare. You also don’t want it to typify any typical horror genre. Well, I believe I have a treat for those of you that seek extreme exploitation – that also serves as a cautionary tale. This is an incredibly fucked up awesome movie from the director of one of the weirdest most awesome fucked up movies that I have ever seen… LEGEND OF THE WOLF WOMAN! HANNA D is a young daughter of a dried up alcoholic Amsterdam whore. The opening scene has her in a school girl uniform in a private compartment on a train, being fetishistically pimped for peep shows to different types of perverts. Yes, you see pussy. You also see containers of drugs pulled from assholes… and then people inject the drugs from up people’s cornholes. This is CRAZY stuff. When you see where these junkie whores INJECT themselves… you’ll scream. Seriously. It’s squirm and scream. I’m very proud to own this fucked up film.

That’s it for this week. Next week we kick off November with: G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, FOOD, INC… THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 remake, Season 1 of THE CLONE WARS. WATCHMEN: THE ULTIMATE CUT on Blu Ray, Disney’s ZORRO – season 1 & 2, NORTH BY NORTHWEST on Blu Ray, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE on Blu Ray, The final season of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, FORREST GUMP (Blu Ray), The brilliant Alastair Sim A CHRISTMAS CAROL on Blu Ray, WINGS OF DESIRE on Criterion Blu Ray, LOVE ACTUALLY on Blu, ROCKY: THE UNDISPUTED COLLECTION Blu Ray, Final season of FRAGGLE ROCK, G.I. JOE RESOLUTE, THE DEAD, I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER, Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Vol. 1, Ruby-Spears animated SUPERMAN, HOWARD’S END on Blu, The Claudette Colbert Collection, THE SHIELD: Complete Series, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION Blu Ray, UNMISTAKEN CHILD, Complete FRAGGLE ROCK, Almodovar’s LAW OF DESIRE, the complete MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series, MATADOR, THE MEN and more!