Thursday, December 29, 2005

Time flies...

My apologies, again, for so much time between posts. I was sick with a bad head cold over Christmas, and before that much of my attention was on projects going on at work. I will not promise but my goal is to write something here almost every day during the 100 Films experiment, which starts in...four days.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The Hammer DVD and Blu-ray List

Last updated 08-16-2014

To go along with the previous post, here is my list of Hammer Studios films and the American studios who own the video rights. This information comes from various online sources, especially the lists at The Cinema Laser here and here (out-of-date). Region 1 DVD releases that I am aware of are in bold:

20th Century Fox --
The Nanny
One Million Years B.C.
The Anniversary (2006, OOP?)

Anchor Bay Entertainment --
(All of these were released as single discs, and most were re-released as limited edition double-feature sets.)
The Abominable Snowman Of The Himalayas
Blood From The Mummy's Tomb
A Challenge for Robin Hood (VHS only)
Demons Of The Mind
The Devil Rides Out [A.K.A. The Devil's Bride]
Dr. Jeykll And Sister Hyde
Dracula-Prince Of Darkness
Enemy From Space [aka Quatermass 2]
Fear In The Night
The Four-Sided Triangle
Frankenstein Created Woman
Hell is a City
Horror Of Frankenstein
The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires [aka The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula]
Let Me In (February 2011)
Lost Continent
Lust For A Vampire
The Mummy's Shroud
The Plague Of The Zombies
Quatermass And The Pit [A.K.A. Five Million Years To Earth]
Rasputin-The Mad Monk
The Reptile
The Satanic Rites Of Dracula
Scars Of Dracula
Shatter
Slave Girls [A.K.A. Prehistoric Women]
Straight On Till Morning
To The Devil A Daughter
Vengeance Of She
The Witches [A.K.A. The Devil's Own]
X-The Unknown

Columbia TriStar --
(Most of these were released between 2008 and 2010 on the three "Icons" sets from Sony)
The Revenge Of Frankenstein
The Men Of Sherwood Forest
Sword Of Sherwood Forest (part of Sony Pictures "Robin Hood Collection" DVD series)
The Old Dark House (in The William Castle Film Collection set) *
Fanatic [A.K.A. Die! Die! My Darling]
Die! Die! My Darling! (Sony Pictures Choice Collection MOD)
The Creatures The World Forgot (Sony Screen Classics on Demand)
The Brigand of Kandahar (video-on-demand from Amazon.com)
Icons of Adventure collection:
The Pirates Of Blood River *
Devil Ship Pirates
The Stranglers Of Bombay
The Terror Of The Tongs
Icons of Horror collection:
The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb
Taste Of Fear [A.K.A.: Scream Of Fear]
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
The Gorgon
Icons of Suspense collection:
The Full Treatment [A.K.A. Stop Me Before I Kill]
Cash On Demand
The Snorkel
Maniac
Never Take Candy From a Stranger
The Damned [A.K.A. These Are The Damned]
*(now available separately as a Sony Pictures Choice Collection MOD)

Mill Creek Entertainment licensed several of the Columbia releases for DVD and Blu-ray:
Hammer Films Collection, volume 1: 
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
Taste Of Fear [A.K.A.: Scream Of Fear]
The Gorgon
The Full Treatment [A.K.A. Stop Me Before I Kill]
The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb
Hammer Films Collection, volume 2:
The Creatures The World Forgot
The Revenge Of Frankenstein
Maniac
Never Take Candy From a Stranger
The Snorkel
Die! Die! My Darling!
Classic Horror 4 Movie Collection:
includes  The Terror Of The Tongs
Hammer Films Double Feature, volume 1 Blu-ray:
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
The Gorgon
Hammer Films Double Feature, volume 2 Blu-ray: 
The Revenge Of Frankenstein
The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb

Dark Sky Films --
Wake Wood (2011)

Image --
The Resident (2011)
Spaceways 

Millennium/Exclusive Media --
3 Horror Classics: Dracula-Prince Of Darkness,
The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires,
Frankenstein Created Woman.
Dracula-Prince of Darkness (Blu-ray)
Frankenstein Created Woman (Blu-ray)


MGM Home Entertainment --
(Titles marked with an * have been licensed to Synapse Films for DVD and Blu-ray)
Hands Of The Ripper* (DVD/Blu-ray combo)
The Creeping Unknown [A.K.A. The Quatermass Experiment] (MGM Limited Edition MOD collection)
The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Ten Seconds To Hell
The Vampire Lovers / Countess Dracula (MGM Midnite Movies double feature DVD)
Countess Dracula* (DVD/Blu-ray combo)
Twins Of Evil* (DVD/Blu-ray combo)
Vampire Circus* (DVD/Blu-ray combo)
The Vampire Lovers (Blu-ray from Shout Factory)

Paramount --
The Man Who Could Cheat Death (Licensed to Legend Films for DVD)
Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell (now available from Warner Archive)
Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter

Sony Pictures --
The Woman in Black (2012)

Universal --
(This fall, Universal released all eight in the Hammer Horror Series set.)
Curse Of The Werewolf
Brides Of Dracula
The Phantom Of The Opera
Captain Clegg [A.K.A.: Night Creatures]
Paranoiac
Kiss Of The Vampire
Evil Of Frankenstein
Nightmare 

Universal released this same set of eight films on Blu-ray on Sept. 13th, 2016.

Warner Home Video --
Crescendo (Warner Archive Collection)
Curse Of Frankenstein
Dracula A.D.1972
Dracula Has Risen From The Grave
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

Horror Of Dracula
Hysteria (Warner Archive Collection)
Moon Zero Two/When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth (OOP)
Moon Zero Two (Warner Archive Collection)
The Mummy
She (Warner Archive Collection)
Taste The Blood Of Dracula

Moon Zero Two and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth were released as a Warner Sci-Fi Double Feature Series DVD, first exclusively to Best Buy in the summer of 2008 then into general release. It was pulled from retail sale by the end of the year. Speculation on the 'net suggests that this is because the disc included the original UK version of Dinosaurs rather than the US G-rated cut as listed on the disc sleeve.

VCI Video --
The Lady Vanishes
Hammer Film Noir, Set 1 (Bad Blonde / Blackout / The Gambler and the Lady / Heat Wave / Man Bait / Stolen Face)
Hammer Film Noir, Set 2 (Terror Street / Wings of Danger / The Glass Tomb / Paid to Kill / The Black Glove / The Deadly Game / The Unholy Four / A Race for Life)

Thursday, December 01, 2005

It’s a great time to be a cult movie fan

I picked up the brand-new 2-pack of King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes today. I’ve seen KK vs. G several times, but I’ve only seen KKE once, over 20 years ago, probably on WFLD-32 or WGN some Saturday afternoon. When I got home I found my recent order from Deep Discount DVD’s 20%-off sale, Warner’s Horror Classics Collection – six Hammer DVDs, including the first three Hammer horror films.

When I bought my first DVD player six or seven years ago, I made up a list of my “most wanted” films on DVD, and that list was rendered obsolete quicker than I ever expected.

Look at Criterion’s series of Kurosawa films, samurai and yakuza movies. MGM’s Midnite Movies line. Tons of releases from obscure directors like Mario Bava and Jess Franco. Almost all of the best Hammer films have been released on DVD (although quite a few of those are already OOP). In the past year alone, Sony put out many of the Godzilla movies, while Media Blasters has released more Toho filmsMatango, The Mysterians, Dogora – with Godzilla: Final Wars and Atragon out this month and Yog next month (How about Latitude Zero, please?), with more on the way. And all of the complete TV series sets that are available… incredible!