With Halloween only a few days away, terror titles haunt video stores
Although Halloween is a few days away, terror titles are already haunting video stores. For video outlets, the trick-or-treat season is an extremely busy time as movie fans walk the aisles seeking chillers to watch at home.
A new pressing of “Horror of Dracula” (Warner; $19.99, DVD only), one of the greatest works in the history of England’s legendary Hammer Films, has landed in video stores with Christopher Lee in his first performance as the eternal bloodsucker. Directed by Terence Fisher, the colorful 1957 production adds an erotic twist to the vampire tale, one that seems quite tame today but was considered shocking 45 years ago.
The DVD of “Horror of Dracula” contains an anamorphic wide-screen image but, unfortunately, the studio didn’t re-master the sound in Dolby Digital 5.1, something that would have squeezed even more scares out of the vintage favorite.
British director Nicolas Roeg’s atmospheric masterpiece, “Don’t Look Now” (Paramount; $19.99, tape; $24.99, DVD) with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, has been digitally remastered on disc with an anamorphic wide-screen image to preserve the carefully constructed theatrical aspect ratio.
Based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier, the 1973 picture creates a threatening tone as the story involving a married couple living in Venice, Italy unfolds and slowly pulls the viewer into its frightening web. Themes about loss, sex, fate and otherworldly powers intertwine as Roeg creates a meditation on bereavement.
“‘Don’t Look Now’ can be looked at in several ways: as a brilliant example of a literary adaptation; as Gothic thriller; as black comedy; as an exploration of grief,” Mark Sanderson writes in “Don’t Look Now: British Film Institute Modern Classics” (BFI; $12.95), which provides an in-depth study of the R-rated work. “The flashy technique and dazzling style masks a strong undertow of genuine feeling that has often been overlooked.
“This is what makes ‘Don’t Look Now’ much more than a consummate chiller: there is genius in its treatment of genre.”
Atmosphere also casts a dark spell in Guillermo Del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” (Columbia TriStar; $99.99, tape; $29.99, DVD). Set at an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War, the R-rated picture follows a boy who arrives at the deteriorating building and sees the restless ghost of a murdered child.
Del Toro, who enjoyed box-office success with the flashy sequel “Blade II,” takes a low-key approach to “The Devil’s Backbone” and creates a haunting work that never resorts to easy scares or gaudy effects. The DVD version features an anamorphic wide-screen image, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, commentary by the director, a making-of featurette and more.
Other fright-films that have arrived for the Halloween viewing season include:
( “Wolfen” (Warner; $14.99, tape; $19.99, DVD), director Michael Wadleigh’s little seen 1981 thriller about wolf-like creatures with super-intelligence. Based on the novel by Whitley Streiber, the R-rated picture proves hypnotic during the Steadicam sequences that provide a wolf’s-eye view of the action. Gregory Hines and Albert Finney co-star.
( “The Fog” (MGM; $9.99, tape; $19.99, DVD), director John Carpenter’s 1979 follow-up to his hit, “Halloween.” The R-rated film, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, is an old-fashioned ghost story designed for those with the patience to allow the story to unfold. The DVD version is a “Special Edition” with an anamorphic wide-screen image, digitally enhanced Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, outtakes, two documentaries and more.
( “Hannibal” (MGM; $9.99, tape; $22.99, DVD), director Ridley Scott’s hit sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs” with Anthony Hopkins returning as Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter and Julianne Moore replacing Jodie Foster as FBI Agent Clarice Starling. Bargain hunters should be interested in a “DVD 2-Pack” ($39.99) with “Hannibal” and “Lambs” packaged together.
( “The Return of the Living Dead” (MGM; $14.99, DVD only), director Dan O’Bannon’s outrageous 1984 zombie picture inspired by George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.” The DVD contains an anamorphic wide-screen image and extras such as commentary by O’Bannon, a featurette and the original theatrical trailer.
‘Gangster’ chronicles
Want to see something really scary? Watch Scottish director Paul McGuigan’s “Gangster No. 1” (MGM; $99.99, tape; $32.99, DVD), a fascinating import with Malcolm McDowell (“A Clockwork Orange”) and Paul Bettany (“A Beautiful Mind”) playing a ruthless London mob boss at the end and beginning of his career, respectively.
The little-seen British import spotlights the talents of Bettany, who transforms into a vacant-eyed psychopath and brings the main character to frightening life. Even Tony Soprano might think twice before tangling with the mobster created by McDowell and Bettany in this equally compelling and disturbing crime tale.
The DVD of “Gangster No. 1” features deleted scenes, a making-of featurette and commentary by McGuigan.
Coming Soon!
The following titles either have been or soon will be released to video stores. (If your local tape outlet doesn’t stock them, tapes can be mail ordered by calling (800) 523-0823 or going to the Web sites www.Amazon.com or www.moviesunlimited.com, unless otherwise noted.)
( “The Rats” (Fox; $99.99, tape; $26.99, DVD; now available) with Madchen Amick (TV’s “Twin Peaks”), Vincent Spano (“The Tie That Binds”) and Shawn Michael Howard (“Boycott”) in a Halloween-season thriller about rodents overrunning a Manhattan department store and terrorizing New York City.
( “The Sum of All Fears” (Paramount; $99.99, tape; $29.99, DVD; Oct. 29) with Ben Affleck (“Reindeer Games”) and Morgan Freeman (“High Crimes”) in a doomsday thriller based on the best seller by Tom Clancy.
( “Eight Legged Freaks” (Warner; $99.99, tape; $26.99, DVD; Oct. 29) with David Arquette (“Scream”) in a creature feature about giant spiders.
( “The Santa Clause: Special Edition” (Disney; $14.99, tape; $29.99, DVD; Oct. 29) with Tim Allen (“Big Trouble”) in a digitally remastered pressing of the family hit about a man who must deliver toys for St. Nick.
( “The Triumph of Love” (Paramount; $99.99, tape; $29.99, DVD; Oct. 29) with Mira Sorvino (“The Replacement Killers”) and Ben Kingsley (“Tuck Everlasting”) in a romantic comedy about a beautiful princess who uses her talents for disguise, deception and seduction to win the heart of the man she desires.
( “Left Behind II: Tribulation Force” (Cloud Ten; $27.99, tape; $29.99, DVD; Oct. 29) with Kirk Cameron (TV’s “Growing Pains”) in the sequel to the tale about survivors searching for millions of people who have vanished into thin air.
( “Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island” (New Concorde; $29.99, tape; $24.99, DVD; Oct. 29) with Jack Palance (“City Slickers”) as Long John Silver in a new version of the pirate tale.
( “Soul Assassin” (Columbia TriStar; $99.99, tape; $24.99, DVD; Oct. 29) with Kristy Swanson (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Skeet Ulrich (“Scream”) in an action tale about a security agent who becomes a hired killer.
( “Dark Shadows: DVD Collection Three” (MPI; $59.99, DVD only; (800) 777-2223; Oct. 29) with Jonathan Frid as 175-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins. The third series – timed for release during the Halloween season – features 40 complete episodes (291-330) of the famed ABC gothic soap opera, which aired from 1966-71 and was created by Dan Curtis. “Dark Shadows” is the only soap opera to inspire two movies (“House of Dark Shadows” and “Night of Dark Shadows”) and more than 30 novels.
( “Baretta Season One” (Universal; $39.99, DVD only; Oct. 29) with Robert Blake as a maverick undercover cop in the first 13 episodes of the hit ABC series (1975-78). Also available will be “The Best of ‘Baretta'” ($19.99, DVD only) with the pilot and two bonus episodes of the series.
( “Walt: The Man Behind the Myth” (Buena Vista; $19.99, tape; $29.99, DVD; now available) with Dick Van Dyke narrating a documentary on the life and work of Walt Disney. More than 70 people – including legendary animators Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston – are interviewed about Disney and some excerpts from the family’s home movies are featured. The DVD contains numerous extras, including commentary by the subject’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller.