Slaughter High (Vestron Video Collector’s Series)
Blu-ray
Directors: George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, Peter Litten
Writers: George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, Peter Litten
Cast: Simon Scudamore, Caroline Munro, Carmine Iannaconne, Donna Yeager, Gary Martin
Distributor: Lionsgate
Unrated | 91 Minutes
Release Date: October 31, 2017

“Where the student body is going to pieces.”

On Halloween, the Vestron Video Collector’s Series unleashes the cult slasher flick Slaughter High for the first time on limited-edition Blu-ray. Written and directed by George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, and Peter Litten, the 1986 film follows a group of popular high school students who play a cruel April Fool’s Day prank on a classmate, resulting in a terrible accident.

Land of the Dead
Blu-ray (Collector’s Edition)
Director: George A. Romero
Screenwriter: George A. Romero
Cast: Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy, Eugene Clark, John Leguizamo
Distributor: Scream Factory
Rated R/Not Rated | 93/97 Minutes
Release Date: October 31, 2017

In 2005, 20 years after Day Of The Dead, Legendary filmmaker George A. Romero returned to the zombie subgenre he created with Land Of The Dead, the fourth entry in the writer-director’s Living Dead series.

Years after the zombie apocalypse, most of the United States is an uninhabited wasteland. Survivors have set up heavily fortified outposts across the country. In Pennsylvania, survivors have fled to the Golden Triangle district of Pittsburgh. Bordered by rivers and massive electric fences, Steel City has become a sanctuary for what’s left of humanity.

While most of the remaining population lives in squalor, the rich and powerful live comfortably in a luxury high-rise called Fiddler’s Green. Paul Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), the city’s Trump-esque ruler, has funded the Dead Reckoning project, an armored personnel vehicle that will bring the good people of Pittsburgh food and medical supplies, as well as necessities like liquor and cigars.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Blu-ray (Collector’s Edition)
Director: Zack Snyder
Screenwriter: James Gunn
Cast: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Lindy Booth, Matt Frewer, Tom Savini, Ken Foree
Distributor: Scream Factory
Rated R/ Not Rated | 101 / 110 Minutes
Release Date: October 24, 2017

Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) and written by James Gunn (Slither, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy series), 2004’s Dawn of the Dead is a remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 film of the same name. Arguably Snyder’s best film, and one of the better horror remakes of the past 20 years, the 2004 movie honors the original while offering a fresh, innovative take on the zombie subgenre.

A mysterious virus is turning people into flesh-eating zombies. Unlike Romero’s slow but relentless living dead, Snyder and Gunn pull from Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later playbook and apply the rabies-like symptoms of the 2002 film’s “Rage Virus” to their reanimated corpses, creating a horde of aggressive, fast-moving zombies that can run, jump, and climb. Essentially, the zombies of the new millennium are CrossFit enthusiasts on bath salts.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes
Blu-ray Combo Pack
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Screenwriter: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle
Cast: Bobbi Sue Luther, Samantha Robson, Ivar Brogger
Distributor: Scream Factory
Rated R | 86 Minutes
Release Date: October 10, 2017

The Poughkeepsie Tapes, a found-footage horror film directed by John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine and As Above, So Below), made its premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was picked up by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and scheduled for a 2008 theatrical release – you may even remember seeing trailers for the movie before Frank Darabont’s The Mist. In spite of the promotional advertising, the docu-thriller was removed from the studio’s release schedule.

For years, the only way to watch Dowdle’s movie was a rough cut available on file-sharing sites. In 2014, however, the movie was given its first official release as a video on demand (VOD) title available through DirecTV. A month later, it was removed from the VOD platform for reasons unknown. As a result, the movie has gained an underground following as being something akin to a snuff film, so violent – so dark and disturbing – that it isn’t suitable for mainstream audiences. Enter Scream Factory, Shout Factory’s sub-division of forgotten horror and science-fiction films, who are giving the film its first proper home video release.

Teen Wolf Too
Blu-ray (Collector’s Edition)
Director: Christopher Leitch
Screenwriter: Tim Kring
Cast: Jason Bateman, Kim Darby, John Astin, Paul Sand, James Hampton, Mark Holton, Estee Chandler, Stuart Fratkin
Distributor: Scream Factory
Rated PG | 94 Minutes
Release Date: August 8, 2017

1987 brought with it some of my favorite films, including Predator, RoboCop, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Hellraiser, Evil Dead II, and The Monster Squad, just to name a few. ’87 also gave us some of the worst sequels ever, like Jaws: The Revenge, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, and Teen Wolf Too, now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory, known for delivering definitive releases of cult classics and forgotten genre films.

Directed by Christopher Leitch (writer of Universal Solider, director of She Fought Alone), Teen Wolf Too is a carbon-copy of Rod Daniel’s 1985 film, minus the charm. I have to assume that this movie was conceived as a direct sequel to the original, with Scott becoming a certified “party animal,” livin’ it up at college on a basketball scholarship. After Fox, who had become a big star after Back to the Future, dropped out, rewrites created a new character that could serve as a stand-in for Scott. Enter Jason Bateman (Zootopia, Horrible Bosses), brother of Fox’s Family Ties co-star, Justine Bateman, who stars as Todd Howard, Scott’s cousin.