This week’s edition of The Digital Wire DVD and Blu-ray Releases is making up big time for last week’s stunning lack of noteworthy home video news announcements. We’ve got some critical favorites, horror cult classics, and a precious jewel of a film made by one of our finest directors that is finally getting the release it deserves. Just don’t blame me if you end up blowing your paycheck here.

Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon, as well as a list of titles coming out this week.

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.

Grindhouse Releasing is finally bringing one of the ultimate Italian cannibal movies to Blu-ray! Almost a year after their stellar release of Cannibal Holocaust, the company has set a release date of May 12, 2015 for the high-definition debut of Cannibal Ferox. Released in theaters and video stores across America in the mid-80’s as Make Them Die Slowly, Umberto Lenzi‘s gut-munching gorehound classic will soon be available in a 3-disc set that includes two Blu-rays and a CD and a ton of bonus features that were created for this release and have been seen before in previous DVD editions:

Amazon pre-order links will be available soon.

Paul Thomas Anderson‘s hazy, loopy comic film noir Inherent Vice, an adaptation of the best-selling 2009 novel written by Thomas Pynchon, is coming to Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on April 28, 2015. Boasting an ensemble cast headlined by Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short, and Jena Malone, one of the best films of 2014 makes its home video debut with a modest assortment of bonus features:

Wanna see Salma Hayek kick unholy amounts of butt in a full-force action flick from the director of Wrong Turn 2: Dead End and The Knights of Badassdom? You’ll get your chance when Anchor Bay Entertainment and RADiUS TWC team up to unleash Joe Lynch‘s blood, bullets, and bombs-loaded thriller Everly on Blu-ray and DVD on April 21, 2015. Bonus features will include:

It was one of the most critically-acclaimed films of last year, but that couldn’t prevent the staggeringly powerful and timely drama Selma from getting almost completely shut out at the Academy Awards (though it did take home the Best Original Song statuette for John Legend and Common‘s soul-searing “Glory”). On May 5, 2015, Paramount Home Media Distribution will give director Ava DuVernay‘s box office smash depiction of one of the pivotal moments in the history of the Civil Rights Movement the chance to reach an even larger audience of home viewers when they release Selma on Blu-ray and DVD. Extra features are set to include:

Vinegar Syndrome just announced their upcoming Blu-ray release of the 1982 cult favorite slasher flick Madman, which will be available for sale beginning May 12, 2015. The plot of Madman is pure Friday the 13th rip-off as a monstrous backwoods maniac stalks and butchers a group of camp counselors who just want to relax, get drunk, and rut in the pantry while the kids are asleep. After a pair of subpar (and currently out-of-print) DVD editions failed the film’s hardcore fan base on various fronts the good folks at Vinegar Syndrome have treated the movie to an all-new 4K high-definition transfer using the original 35mm camera negative as a source and corrected the color issues that have plagued past releases. They’ve also loaded it with bonus features sure to please the fans:

Another week, another batch of jaw-dropping new release announcements from Scream Factory, the horror and sci-fi shingle of the spectacular Shout! Factory. First off, we have some upcoming double feature Blu-rays: the 1987 killer genie flick The Outing and the Cannon Pictures evil child genre entry The Godsend are getting paired up on a disc with fresh high-definition widescreen transfers, as are the two 1988 Empire Pictures releases Cellar Dweller and Catacombs. Another obscure but loved Empire movie, the horror-western Ghost Town, is getting its own individual Blu-ray, and it’s being joined by the thriller Jack’s Back (starring a young James Spader and his sweaty chesty hair) and John McTiernan‘s supernatural shocker Nomads, starring Pierce Brosnan, cult cinema icon Mary Woronov, and 80’s rocker Adam Ant. The two double feature Blus are expected to hit stores on July 14, 2015, the highly-requested Ghost Town drops two weeks later on July 28, Jack’s Back is expected sometime this summer, and a release date has not been set for Nomads.

Scream Factory has also set a release date and a finalized list of special features for their Blu-ray edition of the 1988 cult horror sleeper Scarecrows, about a gang of military criminals who find themselves battle evil forces after a heist doesn’t go exactly as planned. The release is set for June 2, 2015 and will have some sweet supplements that fans of the movie are sure to dig:

Directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange, a very intimidating John Goodman, The Gambler is a remake of a 1974 film starring James Caan. Oscar-winner William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven, The Departed) penned the script about a professor whose compulsive gambling problem gets him and his loved ones into serious trouble with some serious individuals in the criminal underworld. Wyatt’s film comes to Blu-ray and DVD from Paramount Home Media Distribution on April 28, 2015. Extra features will include:

Here’s a last minute entry I simply could not ignore as I was preparing to put this column to bed. The Criterion Collection has announced its home video releases for June and among them is Terry Gilliam‘s celebrated, Oscar-winning 1991 comic fantasy The Fisher King, which stars Jeff Bridges and the late Robin Williams (each delivering one of the finest performances of their career) and has been deserving of an upgraded release since the inception of the Blu-ray format. The film will be released on June 23, 2015 in Blu-ray and DVD editions. Amazon links will be available soon. In the meantime, take a gander at the bonus features we can expect from this long-awaited release:

Out This Week

Exodus: Gods and Kings: Blu-ray|Blu-ray 3D|DVD

Penguins of Madagascar: Blu-ray|Blu-ray 3D|DVD

Annie: Blu-ray|DVD

Song of the Sea: Blu-ray|DVD

Halo: Nightfall: Blu-ray|DVD

The Lady from Shanghai: Blu-ray

Top Five: Blu-ray|DVD

My Girl: 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.