It looks as if Image Entertainment have avoided for bankruptcy, for now anyway, and will be releasing the Boris Karloff hosted show Thriller on DVD and also the first season of The Twilight Zone on Blu-Ray.  Thriller will have numerous special features and will be released on August 31. Whilst I am pleased that Image have chosen to release the complete series rather than release individual season sets I was rather surprised by the $149.99 RRP.  A number of online shops will most likely be selling it slightly cheaper but £100 for a 67 episode show is a little steep.  Perhaps this is to be expected considering the slim profit margins cult television shows such as this make for independent DVD labels?  Still, it will be a must buy for me, the episodes Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper and Pigeons from Hell being the stand-out episodes for me.

Some time later in the fall, Image will also release the first season of Rod Serling's classic The Twilight Zone on Blu-Ray.  No release date has been announced yet but Amazon are already offering it for pre-order at $89.99, another high price tag.  I wonder how some of the video taped episodes will look in HD? 

Robert Rodriguez has released an 'unofficial' trailer for Machete and yes, it looks like it will be everything I was hoping it would be.  I cannot wait to see this.

UPDATE:

Here is trailer in HD:

I recently posted about VCI's forthcoming release of the cult horror film Dark Night of the Scarecrow.  The DVD cover art has now appeared online, and although I prefer the artwork found on the UK VHS release this is still very pleasing.  I am really looking forward to this.

I despise soap operas.  Though a fascination for many Brits, I find them to be highly stereotypical, poorly written and acted and brain numbingly dire.  But there is one soap opera that I hold in high regard.  It premiered in America on July 27 1966, a product of the ABC television network.  Initially a gothic drama, influenced classic literature such as Wuthering Heights, Dark Shadows became braver over time as it attempted to increase ratings by adding supernatural entities such as ghosts, a Pheonix and, most famously, a vampire.  Created by Dan Curtis, who became known for his predilection towards making television programmes with a supernatural slant, such as my personal favourite television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Dark Shadows became a daytime television phenomenon attracting a large viewing audience and leading to two spin-off films: House of the Dark Shadows (Dan Curtis, 1970) and Night of the Dark Shadows (Dan Curtis, 1971).  It is quite surprising to find that the series is little known in the UK.  But this will no doubt change as Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have announced that their next feature will be a 'reboot' (I do dislike this term) of the popular television series, with Depp, a fan of the show while growing up, taking on the role of the sympathetic vampire Barnabas Collins.

The show was aired in the UK on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1995, two episodes were shown each weekday.  Having read about the show in fan publications purchased from comic book shops I was eager to see what the fuss was about.  I was surprised to find that the early episodes had nothing to do with the vampire Barnabas Collins, as I had been led to believe, but still found the show compelling.  I had to dip in and out of the episodes due to school and then college but anticipated the first appearance of Barnabas Collins.  I recall purchasing the magazine Cult Times in order to keep up to date with the episodes aired, waiting for this episode to air.  When it finally did, I was pleased to find that it was not an anti-climatic experience, the infamous shot of Barnabas' hand shooting out the coffin and wrapping round Willie Loomis' throat caught me by surprise.  The ensuing storyline of Barnabas stalking the town of Collinsport and subsequent kidnapping of waitress Maggie Evans who resembles his long lost love Josette Du Pres is extremely engaging.  Future storylines featured Governess Victoria Winters travelling back to 1775 and being accused of Witchcraft, a Werewolf, a Frankenstein inspired storyline and constant time shifting between future, past and parallel time.  Fans of the HBO show True Blood will see many similarities between the two shows, True Blood appearing to be heavily inspired by Dark Shadows right down to the to the melodramatic acting performances.  I stopped watching sometime in the late 1990s, for no apparent reason, just after the show moved from black and white to colour.

In the mid noughties I began to purchase DVD sets of the series released in the US by MPI.  Disappointingly, MPI decided to start the collection with Barnabas' arrival in Collingwood but they thankfully corrected this by releasing the early episodes in 2007 as Dark Shadows - The Beginning.  The sets are very expensive so completing the set of 32 is a costly exercise.  I have attempted to purchase secondhand sets where possible or take advantage of occasionally discounted box sets.  I currently have sets one to twelve and all of six of The Beginning sets.  I had made my way to set seven but have decided to start from the beginning; they are an excellent background accompaniment when working on my PhD and also perfect bed time viewing.  I am now on disc three of set two of The Beginning and engrossed in the 'who killed Bill Malloy' storyline. 

Before the promotion machine starts on the Burton and Depp remake I recommend seeking out the original first.  Yes, some may find it dated, camp and will giggle at the unintentional bloopers (this show was recorded live) but you cannot deny it's unique atmosphere. 

For further details on Dark Shadows see the Wikipedia entry for the show.

You can find the American Region 1 DVD sets for sale on eBay and on Amazon.com where the sets are currently reduced. 

It looks to be official, the cult horror film The Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Frank De Felitta, 1981) will be released on US DVD by VCI in time for Halloween.  Announced early last year as both a Blu-Ray and DVD release by Image who were then on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, it was then assumed that Lion's Gate would be releasing it with newly shot sequences.  The website Horroryearbook reports that VCI will now be responsible for bringing this to DVD, though a Blu-Ray release now seems doubtful.  Hopefully this will be the original version without the newly shot sequences that were rumoured earlier this year that are intended to resolve questions audiences had about the ending.  Personally, I find the ending of the film to be superb and perfectly straight forward. 

Here is my intended viewing for my annual Halloween horror movie marathon:

1. Night of the Living Dead (George Romero, 1968) Blu-Ray
   
2. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (Jorge Grau, 1974) Blu-Ray
   
3. Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2007)
4. Giallo (Dario Argento, 2009)

Unfortunately, there will have to be an intermission to watch Strictly Come Dancing; arguably the most terrifying viewing of the night. 

Happy Halloween everyone.

It looks as if the Danish DVD label Another World Entertainment have released a complete restored edition of Lucio Fulci's brutal giallo The New York Ripper. The American Anchor Bay US release was uncensored in terms of violent content and did feature footage that was not present in any other home video release but did have once misplaced scene. This release corrects the error and also includes a dialogue scene that is missing from most home video releases. I am unable to confirm whether the latter is the same footage that can be found on the Anchor Bay US release without checking my DVD. One possible setback with this release is that it appears to be in 1.85:1 ratio, the Anchor Bay US release is framed in the original 2.35:1 ratio. Perhaps this is a misprint?

Apparently this release is available now and if the aspect ratio given on the Another World website is incorrect it could be the definitive release of this film.

Further details of the release can be found here.