Hope you all had a great and fulfilling (in more ways than one) Thanksgiving and took plenty of time to rest up because the end of days is upon us. That’s right, the holiday shopping season has begun. Prepare thyself for a retail reckoning this month and feel free to check out this week’s edition of The Digital Wire because we have a few Blu-ray and DVD release tidbits that could be of great interest.
Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon. We would greatly appreciate it if you use those links to order because a small percentage of each order helps keep this website running at max power. The cover art for certain titles has yet to be finalized.
Lucio Fulci‘s haunting, gory magnum opus The Beyond is one of the few classic films made by the late Italian horror master to be released in the U.S. on Blu-ray….until now. Grindhouse Releasing, which distributed the 1981 fright epic on Region 1 DVD back in 2008, is bringing The Beyond to Blu-ray on February 10, 2015.
The three-disc set will include a new high-definition transfer of the original director’s cut with a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound remix created by Paul Ottoman and lots of bonus features, including some holdovers from previous releases and new cast and crew interviews. In addition, the set will also include a CD of the music score composed by Fabio Frizzi which is newly remastered from the original studio tapes. The supplements break down as follows:
Audio commentary by stars Catriona MacColl and genre superstar David Warbeck
New in-depth interviews with stars Catriona MacColl, Cinzia Monreale and Giovanni De Nava, U.S. production manager Larry Ray, makeup artists Giannetto De Rossi and Maurizio Trani, cinematographer Sergio Salvati, writer Dardano Sacchetti, producer Fabrizio De Angelis, composer Fabio Frizzi, original U.S. distributor Terry Levene and Antonella Fulci
Rare archival interviews with Lucio Fulci and Warbeck
Lost German pre-credit sequence in full color
Liner notes by legendary horror journalist Chas. Balun and Eurohorror expert Martin Beine
Extensive still galleries and theatrical trailers
To top it all off, Grindhouse’s Blu-ray of The Beyond will come packaged with glow-in-the-dark artwork. This is sure to be one of the biggest horror home video releases of 2015.
Keeping the news in the realm of classic Italian horror, Fernando Di Leo‘s sleazy, weird slasher flick Slaughter Hotel will be premiering on Blu-ray and DVD in the U.S. from Raro Video on December 9, 2014. Starring the legendary Klaus Kinski as a mysterious doctor, Slaughter Hotel revolves around the bloody trail of mayhem an ax-wielding psychopath leaves in their wake when they target the beautiful female patients occupying Kinski’s sanitarium. The film sports a new high-definition transfer with new and improved English subtitle translation as well as the following new bonus features:
Lady Frankenstein’s Memoirs
Asylum of Fear
Deleted scenes
Fully illustrated booklet with information about the film
Having spent enough time on the horror of Italy let us now depart this rotating hunk of molten rock for the final frontier. The short-lived original Battlestar Galactica and shorter-lived spin-off Galactica 1980 are coming to Blu-ray from Universal Studios Home Entertainment on May 12, 2015 in two different collections.
Battlestar Galactica: The Remastered Collection spreads every episode of both series across eight discs as well as over four hours of bonus features, including over three hours of Battlestar deleted scenes, a 45-minute retrospective documentary, an interview with the show’s late creator Glen Larson, and more. Each episode in The Remastered Collection will be formatted in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio.
Battlestar Galactica: The Definitive Collection contains every episode of the two series formatted in both the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio and the reformatted 1.78:1 as well as all of the Remastered Collection‘s bonus features.
In my previous Digital Wire column I brought word of the upcoming release of Duke Mitchell‘s long-unavailable exploitation gangster epic Massacre Mafia Style from Grindhouse Releasing. It had previously been set for January 13, 2015 but was recently delayed a month, which means it will now come out the same day as Grindhouse’s Blu-ray of The Beyond! The Massacre Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, which was co-produced by the late Mitchell’s son Jeffrey, will feature a new high-definition digital restoration of the original director’s cut and a digital restoration of the film’s original mono soundtrack along with the following new supplements:
Interviews with Jeffrey Mitchell, Frankie Ray, George Jacobs, Jim LoBianco, and exploitation legend Matt Cimber
Almost one full hour of never-before-seen Duke Mitchell home movie
Lost audio recording – Duke Mitchell Live in Concert, June 9, 1960
Bonus TV special – AN IMPRESSIONISTIC TRIBUTE TO JIMMY DURANTE
Extensive still galleries, radio spots, and theatrical trailer
Glossy booklet with rare photos and liner notes by author David Szulkin
Spectacular new cover painting by renowned Los Angeles cult artist Dave Lebow
Beautiful embossed slip cover
AND OTHER SURPRISES!
Massacre Mafia Style should be up for pre-order soon at Amazon.
Out This Week
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Blu-ray|
Blu-ray 3D|DVD
Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Seven: Blu-ray
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Blu-ray
Star Trek: The Next Generation – All Good Things: Blu-ray
The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season: Blu-ray|DVD
The Strain: The Complete First Season: Blu-ray|DVD
The Quatermass Xperiment: Blu-ray
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Caesar’s Warrior Collection: Blu-ray
Those are the highlights of this week. Come back same time next week for more of the coolest home video news tidbits on the web.
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