RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
d. Dan O’Bannon
c. Linnea Quigley
release date: September 11, 2007
September 11 is becoming a pretty big day for DVD releases. We get the eagerly anticipated (by me) special edition of Face/Off, the complete second season of Supernatural, the collector’s edition of The Graduate, and the first two items in today’s column. The first of which is Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead. Following the success of Dawn of the Dead, the zombie movie took an unexpected turn. Many movies were released that made the zombies a little more comical, while at the same time much more gruesome. While many of the movies were horrid, a few stood out among the rest. Movies like Re-Animator and Return of the Living Dead made the comedy-horror genre so popular that it would help Return thrash the more serious Day of the Dead’s box office receipts when the two went head to head. Return of the Living Dead, written and directed by Dan O’Bannon took the events that happened in Night of the Living Dead and made them facts. The horror begins when two friends find a sealed drum containing desiccated zombie corpses and much of the reanimating chemical that caused it to begin with. When one of the drums springs a leak, the horror starts again. The movie was kept as a horror-comedy because, as O’Bannon once said, “I just can’t visualize a straight horror movie at this juncture in history.” Ignoring the philosophical musings, O’Bannon chose to just throw buckets and buckets of gore and an aesthetic where anything goes. Extras will include a cast, crew and undead commentary, a Remembering The Dead: Cast Recollections featurette, a From The Underground: The Rise of Horror in the 80s featurette, and a Zombie subtitle stream.
FROM BEYOND (UNRATED DIRECTOR’S CUT)
d. Stuart Gordon
c. Jeffrey Combs, Ken Foree
release date: September 11, 2007
The second classic horror movie coming out on September 11, is From Beyond. This movie was announced a couple of years ago, and then it just disappeared from the public eye. Devin spoke to Ken Foree in 2005, and Foree mentioned that the DVD would be released with restored scenes. In 2006, Devin then got a press release from Monsters HD that announced it would be shown on the television network on June 10, 2006, in preparation for the DVD release. Since then there has been no word about the DVD. Until now. From Beyond reunites the production team and cast of Re-Animator, in this expansion of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s brief sketches. A mad scientist invents a giant tuning-fork that brings creatures from another dimension into this reality and stimulates the pineal glands of those who hear it tones. Soon people begin to mutate into monstrosities and the movie moves into the standard gore and horror-defusing humor that was popular in the day. While the MPAA tried to rape the film of it’s appeal, this release will include all the unrated items that had to be exorcised to achieve the original R-rating. Extras will include a Director’s Perspective featurette, an Editing Room: Lost and Found featurette, an interview with the composer, a photo montage, storyboard to film comparisons with introduction, and four deleted scenes (Appearance of Dr. Pretorus, Death of Bubba, Hospital Escape, and Katherine Frees Herself). This is a DVD that all horror fans need to pick up.
POLTERGEIST: 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
d. Tobe Hooper
c. Craig T. Nelson, Zelda Rubinstein
release date: October 09, 2007
This is big news. First off, the DVD is pretty much crap for a special edition. The movie will be cleaned up, but it better be cheap because all the extra features have nothing to do with the production of the actual movie. However, the big news is that for one night only, you get to see the cleaned up version of Poltergeist in a theater on the big screen. A couple of years ago, I attended a theatrical showing of The Blues Brothers, which proceeded a nationwide broadcast of the cast interviews. While the special simulcast for Poltergeist is nothing more than a short production over “real poltergeists” the fact that the movie will once again be seen on the big screen is great news. The showing will be Thursday, October 4th at 7:30 p.m. and be hosted at theaters by NCM Fathom. Tickets will goon sale September 7. This will lead to the release of the new restored DVD on October 9. The only extra material will be a two-part They are Here: The Real World of Poltergeists Revealed documentary (Science of the Spirits and Communicating with the Dead), and the films theatrical trailer.